Discovering Your True Self
by katarauchiha653719
Summary: Contains vampires; As one girl's life moves forward, all she wanted was a normal life, but what she got was one where she was expected to be her kingdom's savior. Will she be able to live up to her name or will she fail trying?
1. The Prologue

**Well, I decided to start another story featuring my own OC. **

**Hope you guys like it!**

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_The Uchiha Kingdom was one that was prosperous, yet powerful, and most were vampires; for ages, their people lived peacefully and gladly served under their king, Lord Uchiha Wairi along with his wife, Uchiha Chihiro. But one day, everything changed when an ambushed occurred:_

_Darkness surrounded everything in its path; fire was beginning to envelop the castle and turn everything into ash as all the guards tried to defend the remaining heir to the kingdom. As the one lonely princess was running for her life, she saw each member of her family give up their lives for her. Many screams were heard as people lost their lives fighting for the royal family; the killings were done quickly and painfully, as the princess tried to block out the high shrieking screams. The princess was around 6 years of age, with ivory skin, dark navy eyes with short hair to match. Wearing a silver and black kimono, she was running away as the evil was coming after her. She of course was only a half vampire, as her mother was not one at all. She already saw the demise of her parents along with her brother, which was why newly cried tears were brewing from her eyes, as she was trying to lose the minions that were after her. _

_The princess had reached a dead end and her dark navy eyes widened in fear as she saw she was cornered; 'T-this is it….it's over.' Thought the heiress. Quickly enough, the vampires who were working for a man known as Orochimaru, were coming closer and closer, as the princess was clutching tightly onto her silver necklace as if her life was depending on it. She was rolled up into the fetal position, letting out more tears come out as she realized what was going to happen to her. Hoping for her life just to end right here, she shut her eyes, and waited for the upcoming blow; she realized that nothing was going on, she slowly opened her eyes and saw a man with silver hair spiked up with one eye covered with a headband and a mask. She recognized the man as one of her father's trustworthy advisors as well as also being one of their bodyguards. _

"_Kakashi-san, w-what are you doing here?" asked the princess as she was still letting out tears of fear._

"_Princess Katara, you know that it is my duty to protect you, now once I give you the signal, you must run toward the western corridor; there, you will find a few close friends of mine who will help get out of here. Their names are Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai; they'll know what to do." Said the silver haired man._

_Uchiha Katara shakingly stood up, "N-n-no-o, I-I, I won't leave you!" yelled the princess. _

"_I'll be right behind you, and no matter what, we'll see each other again, NOW GO!" Kakashi harshly yelled. Katara quickly sprinted into the exact direction her savior had pointed out, but she still felt that she was still being followed. She came upon an open hallway, but saw that there were still some of Orochimiaru's men on the ceiling and side walls. The only opening she had left to escape was a closed glass window. Panicking when she saw them come closer, her breathing became erratic and rapid and without anymore thought, she jumped out the window, hoping that the snow of winter would have a soft cushion for her landing. Feeling the harsh impact, she was instantly put into an unconscious state, and the last thing she saw were three unknown, shadowed figures coming towards her._

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"_What's her condition?" asked a familiar voice._

_Four figures were in another room discussing the recent events that happened earlier tonight; and in the room next to them, was the only heiress to the Uchiha Kingdom, Uchiha Katara. She was currently unconscious and most of her injuries were very severe. After falling from such a height, it was amazing that she managed to survive._

"_Well, I can't say the least, but she'll be in bed for awhile; that fall that she survived cause her to break her leg, fracture the other one, dislocate her shoulder; she's lucky she even survived!" said a red eyed women named Kurenai._

"_Is that all? Then she'll be fine..Right?" asked the familiar voice before. (Kakashi)_

"_Umm….I-I don't know how to tell you this Kakashi, but…." Kurenai slowly began to say._

"_Let me then, Kurenai. She had a harsh fall and hit her head on the ground extremely hard which led to amnesia. She has no memories left of her life beforehand and can't remember a thing." Calmly said Gai._

"_I'm sorry, Kakashi, but maybe it's best this way….I mean she's only a child and on account what happened tonight, how are we going to explain that to her when she wakes up?." said Asuma._

"_You're right, Asuma. But what now then? What's going to happen to her now that her parents and family are gone?" asked Gai as he slammed his fist to the ground._

_Kakashi tore away from the group and began walking towards the window that was lit up by the full moon, and said, "She'll have a normal life then; and we'll continue to watch over her, until we know that she's grown up enough to know about her true self."_

"_And what about Orochimaru?" asked Kurenai._

"_He believes she's dead…..we'll just have to keep up this act until she's old enough to defend herself." Replied Asuma. _

"_So she'll never be able to know about us?" asked Gai._

"_Yes…but this is the best way. We'll just be secretly watching over her." Stated Kakashi._

"_And what of the other Uchiha members who survived. I'm pretty sure Itachi and his family were one of the surviving families." Said Kurenai._

"_They all still believe that she's dead……there's nothing we can do about that. When she returns to reclaim her throne, they'll have hope once again. But for now, all we have to do is wait." Said Asuma._

"_So where is she to live now?" asked Kurenai._

"_Don't worry about that; she'll have to live in an orphanage for awhile, but then she'll be able to live off on her own." Replied Kakashi._

"_She's starting to wake up……" stated Asuma as he checked on her in the other room._

"_So it's agreed? She'll be living in the Hidden Leaf Village." Said Kakashi._

"_Hai!" all three of them said._

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**Well, this was the prologue, and tell me what you thought of it!**

**Please review!**


	2. Chapter One: The Nightmare

**Here's the first chapter and the start of my story! ENjoy!**

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**Chapter One: The Nightmare**

_A girl with dark navy eyes and short hair was running….running so quickly that she didn't realize she was unable to feel anything in her legs anymore. A loud crash was heard as some sort of monster almost pounced on her as she was looking for an escape route. Fire surrounded the whole castle as she was trying to get away from her followers; suddenly she was cornered and was weeping uncontrollably. _

_A man with a strange mask and one eye had appeared out of nowhere, but the little girl was grateful someone had arrived to save her."Once I give you the signal, you have to run! Now GO!"_

_The girl took off with running and never saw that man ever again…._

_Uchiha Katara, now at the age of 17, was having the same nightmare for the past 3 months; she was currently thrashing around her bed screaming out: "Wait who are you? Please give me some answers!"_

_In her dream, the silver haired man would say: "In due time, you'll see what this all means.."_

_And just like that, her nightmare ended._

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_The 17 year old teen had lived out a normal life in the Hidden Leaf for as long as she could remember. For some reason, she only knew about her first name, and never knew of her last name. All she could remember from the beginning of her life was being dropped off at an orphanage where she met one of her closest friends, Uzumaki Naruto. He was also a bit older than her, but still held that childish personality. She on the other hand grew up to become a woman, and no longer a girl. She now was 5'8.5" and had long cascading dark bluish hair down to her waist. Her eyes definitely changed into a lighter navy color, but still dark. Her skin was flawless and still was the same ivory color; she had an hour glass figure to her and definitely developed faster than most females. Her breasts were perfect for her petite form and she definitely had the smile to match her heart-shaped face. She currently lived in an apartment, alone, and she wasn't like most girls in her village. She somehow always thought she was different; maybe it was the fact that her eyes sometimes changed colors, and maybe it was just her, but it seemed like she had fangs. She also somehow managed to be very quick on her feet and strong, although she never took the path of a ninja. Even though most of her friends did, she never thought she was meant to become one, so she settled to just be a normal girl, who was working in a quaint tea shop/café._

_After taking a 5 minute shower, she dried herself off and got ready for her daily routine that happened everyday. First, she would work from 8am to noon, and then go out to lunch with Naruto, at the ramen stand, like they always did; then she would watch him train, and then go hangout with her girl friends and have dinner with the whole gang later. It was a pretty ordinary life, and a part of her wished something interesting would happen, but in her mind it was unlikely; more than unlikely, it was impossible. _

_Once after getting dressed in black shorts, and a red tank top with a white undershirt, along with black sandals, Katara quickly locked up her apartment and set off to work. Once there, she put on her apron and got ready for the morning crowd. Her boss, Sayuri-baa-chan, was a nice old woman who cared deeply for the girl and definitely thought of her as a granddaughter. The old woman was sweeping the floor as she saw Katara come in, looking exhausted. _

"_Ohayo, baa-chan!" said Katara._

"_Katara-chan! Dear, you look tired….maybe you should go get some more sleep. These days I'm worried about you….have you been having the same nightmare again?" worriedly asked the owner of the tea shop/café._

"_Baa-chan, don't worry….it's nothing, and plus I love working here!" exclaimed Katara as she rose her hands up high._

"_Alright, now get ready, I'm about to open up the shop; I expect lots of people coming." Said Sayuri._

"_Hai!" the teen said as she skipped off to put on her apron and get ready. In the back of the shop, she saw her other co-worker, Akina; a short-brown-haired girl, that was shorter than Katara, with purple eyes, and was about 19 years old. She was also one of Katara's friends and they both enjoyed working here. In fact, Akina was Sayuri baa-chan's real granddaughter and when Katara first started working here, they bonded greatly._

"_Katara! Wow………..um…..you look like a mess." Stated Akina as she pointed her tan finger at her friend's face._

"_Thanks, Akina, cause that's what all girls want to hear everyday!" said Katara as she rolled her eyes._

"_Gomen…….it's just that….." Akina started to say, until Katara interrupted her, "Yeah, yeah, yeah, I know…..it's my nightmare, ok?"_

"_Ok, I'm just worried is all" said Akina._

"_Hey, it's ok, I'll be fine…no worries. Now, why don't we get out there and take peoples' orders, ok?" Katara said as she gave her friend a hug. Both girls smiled and entered into the café/shop._

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_Both girls have been working for 3 hours and Katara was about to get off in an hour. So far, there was a huge crowd that came in the morning, but few people came during the hours of 11 and 12, just like everyday Katara was here. She was cleaning off some tables, while Akina and Sayuri-baa-chan were behind the desk. The old lady was counting today's profits as Akina was washing the plates and cups. There were only a few people in the place, and as Katara was clearing a table and cleaning it up, a bell chime sounded from the door, indicating that someone was coming in. _

_Katara turned around and was met up with a man, around the age of 20, with strong obsidian eyes and perfectly flawless skin along with raven locks tied in a simple pony-tail; he seemed to have marks, that seemed to have come from stress, but she couldn't tell; after all, she just saw him, but overall, he seemed very handsome. Breaking away from her stare, she realized that he was waiting for a table, so she quickly went up to him and greeted him._

"_Hello, welcome to The Kobayashi Tea Shop/ Café….will it only be you for today?" asked Katara as she was smiling and trying to hide a blush._

"_Hn….Yes." replied the stranger. Katara almost fainted at hearing his voice, but she couldn't now, so she showed him a table near a window with the view of the outside._

"_Here's the menu, and I'll be right with you." Replied Katara._

"_Green tea." Stated the stranger._

_Katara was slowly walking away, and she was shocked at his quick response, that she didn't really catch what he said. "Umm….wait, wh-what did you say? Stuttered the teen._

"_G-r-e-e-n t-e-a." slowly repeated said stranger, as if he was treating her like a child._

'_Alright, forget about him being handsome, but he seems to give off the aura as a jerk and plus, I've never seen him before.' Thought the teen. _

"_Right away." Answered the navy haired girl as she scribbled down his order. After a few minutes, she came out with a tray with a tea kettle and cup, coming towards the stranger's table. Without any notice, she slipped on a napkin and was about to fall, until said stranger grabbed her by the waist, while at the same time, managed to catch the tea cup, and kettle on the tray without spilling a single drop. Katara was blushing at their closeness, but he quickly let her go._

_They were both walking towards his table as he said, "You know, you should really watch where you're going."_

'_Grr……this guy is so…..impossible. I-I can't believe he was actually hot!' thought the teen._

"_Umm………thanks..umm….what's your name?" asked Katara as she was scratching the back of her head due to embarrassment._

"_Uchiha Itachi….yours?" Plainly stated the stranger._

"_Katara…" Itachi was quiet for a moment, until she realized what he was waiting for, "Oh, um… I don't really know my last name."_

_At the exact moment she said her name, Itachi knew who she was; she definitely had changed from the last time he saw her, but he had last seen her when she was 6, and he highly doubted that she would recognize him. His eyes had widened, but she didn't catch notice of this; he was surprised that she was alive. She after all, was supposed to be his fiancée; when they were kids, their fathers had set them up._

_Katara had quickly stared at him, and realized there was something a bit off about him; maybe it was just her, but she thought she saw some fangs, but it could just be her wild imagination again. _

"_Interesting." Said itachi._

"_Wh-what?" asked Katara as she broke out from her stare. _

"_I was just saying how interesting it was that you don't know your full name." stated the Uchiha._

"_Oh, well, I grew up as an orphan…." Said Katara, until she was interrupted._

"_Take a seat; your life seems to intrigue me."_

"_ok….." Katara said as she slowly sat across from this newly met stranger. _

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_After a few minutes of talking, well it was mostly Katara talking since Itachi asked all the questions, Katara checked the time and realized it was a quarter past 12._

"_Oh shoot! I'm so sorry, but I have to go! I lost track of time and I have to meet up with my friends. Sorry!" Katara said as she began to run out the door, but Itachi quickly grabbed her by the wrist before she could leave and said, "I understand, but I hope our paths cross again…" and then he planted a kiss on her hand, that made her turn 5 shades of red darker. And just like that he left. _

_After about 5 minutes of just standing there, Katara couldn't believe what happened. 'Well, I guess that since I had wanted something out of the ordinary to happen, it did' thought Katara. 'Man, again, I feel like someone is watching me….maybe I'm going crazy…Yeah that's it….I just need some fresh air.'_

_After her little period of thinking she made it to the ramen stand and saw Naruto, slurping away at his fifth bowl of ramen. "Gomen Naruto-kun, I just lost track of time."_

"_Hey, don't worry about it…..and I ordered your pork ramen ahead of time and told them to cook it when you arrived." Said Naruto, in between slurps._

"_Arigatou!" said Katara as she took a seat and began to eat. "So what happened back there?" asked the blonde-haired shinobi._

"_Well, I met this guy, who I've never seen before….have you ever heard of Uchiha Itachi?" asked the 17 year old girl._

_After finishing ten bowls, Naruto put a finger on his chin and thought about this man carefully; "Hmm………I know I've heard of 'Uchiha' somewhere, but I'm not really sure." _

"_I see………well, we should be off to training right?"_

"_Yeah! Let's go Katara-chan!" yelled Naruto as he pumped his fist in the air. _

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_After watching and helping Naruto train for 2 and a half hours, Katara was silently sitting under a tree, watching at how much her best friend had improved. After losing her train of thought, she quickly replayed the moment where Itachi managed to save her from falling. It kept replaying in her mind and she couldn't help but think that he was incredibly fast and those fangs……. 'There's no way……I think I'm over-thinking this….I just have to calm down.'_

_Her thinking process was interrupted when she heard many voices calling her name; she saw her girl friends, Ino, Sakura, Hinata and Keiko Hyuuga, and Tenten come over, like they always did, so that they could all hangout. But at the moment, Katara seemed like she had so much on her mind that she just needed some alone time. _

"_Hey, guys!" Katara said as she stood up and smiled as she saw her friends._

"_Come on, Kay, there's this huge sale and we have to get there!" screamed Ino as she was dragging her along by the arm._

"_Umm……..if you guys don't mind, I just need time to think, but I'll meet up with all you guys for dinner, ok?" replied the teen._

"_Oh, ok.." timidly replied Hinata._

_Katara was slowly walking away in the opposite direction, going deeper into the training grounds. "What's wrong with her?" Keiko asked Naruto._

"_I have no idea, but then again, she did mention something to me that happened to her in the morning." Answered Naruto._

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_Going deeper into the forest, Katara had reached a meadow full of beautiful flowers along with a beautiful lake. She had decided to sit near the edge of the lake and just think of this morning's event over again. 'He, there's just something about him, that I can't pinpoint. Well, I don't think there's anything to worry about, I mean what are the odds of seeing him again?' thought Katara. She slowly laid herself down on the grass as she was watching the clouds go by and it just felt like that the day was passing by quickly. Before she knew it, it was already dark and it was a full moon; Katara wasn't worried though, but once again, he felt that she was being watched. She quickly shook off that feeling and managed to make her way through the forest and back to civilization. She was walking down the dimly lit streets and knew it was late and she probably already missed her dinner plans with her friends, so she decided to head back home. _

_The young 17 year old was walking through the village as she was making her way to her apartment. She was passing along an alley and trying to pass by quickly to get home as fast as possible. From the corner of her eye, she had saw a lone man, standing nearby a lit street light and she was just freaking herself out more by thinking someone was following her. While she was deep in thought she didn't realize that said man was following her and was closing in. She also didn't realize that she had missed her correct turn and ended up in a dead end. 'Please tell me that man isn't behind me.' Thought Katara as she hoped said man wasn't. But she was wrong, when she turned around she was pinned down by the man and her back was pushed towards the wall. She could smell his breathe and could tell that he had a few too many drinks and was definitely drunk. Her thought process was interrupted when she felt his hand go under her shirt, trying to lift it off her body. Katara was slowly trying to hide back her tears as he tried to undress her and kiss her. She was trying as hard as she could, but she couldn't overcome the strength of this man. Her tears poured out as she was begging the man to stop; she tried to kick him and push him off her, but he kept kissing her neck, and she stopped moving when she felt his erection._

_Katara couldn't help stop crying and was hoping someone would come to her rescue. Right when she thought about that, someone came out from the shadows and immediately kicked the drunken man off her, into the opposing wall. She was shakingly trying to regain her composure and tried to see the face of her savior. She saw him come at the drunken man and smash him against the wall, until she saw him bleeding nonstop; she quickly shut her eyes and jumped up in fear as she felt arms encircle around her crying form. She slowly looked up and saw the same man she had met this morning, except his eyes were now crimson blood red._

"_I-Itachi…..thank you." Katara said as she nuzzled her face into his chest as she continued to cry._

_The Uchiha looked down at her and was glad he came just in time. He couldn't believe what that man was thinking about doing to her and he was now taking her to his home because he had no idea where she lived. _

_After about 10 minutes of running, Itachi and Katara made it to Itachi's home; he managed to open his door, while he was carrying her and he noticed that she had fallen asleep in his arms with her arms around his neck. Once getting up into his bedroom, he changed into sleeping clothes, but wore no shirt, as he set her on his only bed. He was about to go out the room and sleep on the sofa as he heard her move and call his name; he realized that she was awake. _

"_Wait, pl-please don't leave me alone, Itachi. Can you please stay here with me?" begged the teen._

_She didn't get an answer, but he had sat down on a chair, next to the bed. "Arigatou, Itachi-kun." She said in the sweetest voice he had always missed._

_In less than 2 minutes, Katara was asleep and looked very peaceful. Itachi was again about to leave the room, but then heard Katara screaming in her sleep._

'_A nightmare.' Thought the Uchiha. He was then next to her bed and Katara was thrashing around in her sleep, but calmed down when Itachi encircled his arms around her. _

_Overnight, Itachi stayed like this to calm Katara down and it seemed like it was working. _

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**Well, that was the first chapter!**

**Please tell me what you think of it because I'm unsure if I'm going to continue this story.**

**Thanks!**


	3. Chapter Two: The Secret & the Surprise

**Well here's the 2nd chapter and hope you all enjoy! **

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Chapter 2: The Secret and the Surprise!

_The sunlit morning broke through the glass window, shining down on a young girl's eyes. She was restlessly waking up to the call of the morning, but felt a warmth near her that made her want to get closer to it. The warmth began to move and she realized that there were hands around her waist while her own hands were on a man's bare chest. Screaming out in horror, Katara woke up her savior and was trying to get out of his grasp. She continued hitting and punching him, but he wouldn't let go; once calming down, Itachi managed to get a word in, "Are you always this noisy?"_

"_Well, I'm SORRY! It's just that I'm not USED TO WAKING UP NEXT TO SOMEONE THAT I JUST MET!" yelled Katara. _

"_Hn…." Replied Itachi, which just made said girl roll her eyes at him, until she recalled last night's event and quickly decided that she needed to get home and let her friends know she was alright. _

_A voice broke through her thoughts, "The phone's on the stand near the bed. I'm going to go get dressed." 'Okay………that was weird; it's like he could read my head.' Thought Katara. _

_After a few fast minutes, Itachi was back and Katara managed to call Keiko and tell her what had happened and she had told her friend to tell everyone else that she was fine. After seeing Itachi all dressed in normal clothes, she went right up to him and said, "Thank you; if it wasn't for you, I don't really know what I would've done; it seems like you're always there for me at the right time," as she bowed to show her respect. _

_Itachi was beginning to walk around her, like a predator finally cornering his prey and said, "Hn……seems like you always get into trouble, but just be careful."_

"_Alright, thanks again Itachi." Katara said as she smiled and gave him a hug, which he wasn't expecting. Then once saying their good-byes, Katara left to go back to her apartment. The Uchiha was stunned as he watched her walk out his doorway. _

_Katara was actually having a great day; it seemed like ever since she met Itachi, she seemed to see him when she needed him the most. But she couldn't help but think that someone was still watching over her; but she took out that thought as she made it to her apartment. She opened the door and stepped inside and took a shower and dressed in new clothes for the day. _

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_In another part of the World:_

_Many of the survivors of the Uchiha massacre were imprisoned by chains and forced to work for the new lord, Orochimaru; they all lost hope once discovering that their princess was gone and the light from their eyes quickly disappeared after that. For more than a decade, Lord Orochimaru treated the Uchiha as slaves, forcing them to work in mines and as his servants. No one dared to object to him because they all heard of his experiments and torturing acts, and they were all too scared to fight back, but that didn't mean that a rebellion wasn't started. One secret group was actually started by Kakashi and his friends, and most members included other people who weren't part of the clan, but the group also included Itachi and his family. But at the time, the only people who knew that the princess was indeed alive were Kakashi, Gai, Kurenai, and Asuma. It's been at least 11 years since this occurred and at the moment, the group was having a meeting, outside of the kingdom's walls, in a nearby cabin in the forest. _

_A huge slam of the door was heard as the group of rebels turned around to see an angry Uchiha Itachi. His eyes were blaring holes into them, and if looks could kill, they would all be dead in an instant. 'Looks, like he found out' thought the copy ninja. _

"_Nice of you to join us, Itachi. Where have you been? You know that we've planned this meeting for months, and I find it surprising that you are late." Stated Gai._

"_Hn…" answered the angry Uchiha as he was forced to take a seat and to hear what had to be said._

"_It's come to my attention that Orochimaru is planning another invasion, but this time, he's headed for the Hidden Leaf Village. Once he conquers this area, there's no stopping him; he'll head out for more territory so we have to stop him now, whether the princess is alive or not!' yelled an old man, called by the name of Jiraiya. _

"_Don't be such a buffoon, Jiraiya; I'm sure Kakashi has another plan." Replied a young looking woman with hazel eyes and blonde hair, known as Tsunade. _

"_You want me to tell them, Kakashi, or do you want to tell them." Stated the angry Uchiha as he tried to hide his killing aura. _

"_Wait, what are you talking about Itachi?" asked his brother, Uchiha Sasuke. _

"_The fact that she's alive……how could you keep this from us?" questioned the Uchiha as all of the other faces looked surprisingly at Kakashi._

"_I knew you guys would find out later, but we wanted her to have a normal life, until the time comes for her to claim what rightfully is hers. Gai, Asuma, Kurenai, and I have kept a close watch on her for the past 11 years and she's been doing fine, but it seems now is the right time for her to know." Replied the silver haired ninja. _

"_You mean to tell me, you've all been lying to us this whole time! Our people lost all hope once we found out she was dead! We lost everything that day! And you weren't willing enough to tell us she was alive?!" yelled another angry Uchiha as he slammed his fist onto the wooden table. (Sasuke) Kakashi came from behind and managed to hold Sasuke down in order to calm him, and said, "We did this for her sake and for yours; do you think once word got out that she was alive that they would stop at nothing to get rid of her? Her whole life would've been in danger and she would have to run away each time his men even got close to her. Would you want her to have a life like this?" _

_The Uchiha under Kakashi's hold stopped struggling and regained his composure and said, "What now then?"_

"_I'd say the best thing would be to tell her the truth; but maybe we should all be there when she finds out; Itachi do not dare tell her anything for now, but later tonight, perhaps we'll be able to make it and tell her the whole life story." Replied Jiraiya. _

"_So it's settled; tonight it is." Said Kakashi as he adjourned the meeting and everyone quickly disappeared. _

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_Katara was just about to leave her house in a nice light blue spaghetti strap with black shorts and a navy blue thin jacket, when she heard a knock on her door. When she opened it, she was surprised to see Hinata, Sakura, Ino, Keiko, and Tenten at the door. _

"_Hey guys! Umm……..I don't want to sound rude, but what are you guys doing here?" asked the confused girl._

"_Well, for starters, we all wanted to make sure you were ok," said Tenten, but she was interrupted by Ino, Sakura, Keiko, and Hinata, when they all said, "HAPPY 18__TH__ BIRTHDAY, KAY!" _

"_OMG! I totally forgot!" said girl said as she blushed at getting too caught up in things and totally forgot about her birthday. "Well, what are you guys doing here?"_

"_W-well, we're here to spend the whole day with you…" shyly replied the Hyuuga heiress. _

"_Oh, alright. So I'm guessing we're off to the mall, huh?" asked the newly turned 18 year old, but she already knew the answer, so she just locked her door and left with her friends to the mall. _

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_A cell phone ring was heard as the number-one hyperactive, knuckle-head ninja picked up his cell and answered, "Hi Sakura-chan, is she gone? Ok, we'll be right over with the decorations. Bye!"_

_And with that the blonde ninja got all his friends, Shino, Shikamaru, Chouji, Kiba, Rock Lee, Koji, and Neji Hyuuga to come to Katara's place to set up for her surprise party. _

_After arriving there, a few arguments were made as the guys were trying to put up the decorations. "Shikamaru, you're putting the streamers the wrong way! They're suppose to go in a wave motion!" yelled Naruto as he was trying to show him the correct way to do it._

"_This is too troublesome and Naruto, I know what I'm doing so just leave me alone." Said the lazy ninja. _

"_Oh yeah!" the blonde nin screamed as he started throwing different pieces of confetti all over the place at Shikamaru. "Oh, I want to join in!" yelled Rock Lee as he took some and continued with the fight._

'_Sometimes, I feel like the only adult here.' Thought Neji and Koji at the same time. _

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_The girls have been shopping nonstop, but they had wanted to buy one more thing for their friend, a dress. So they all set out to one of the most ravishing stores known for their amazing gowns for any occasion; once they reached their destination, they all had to forcefully push Katara inside. In the store was a huge selection of many different styles of dresses with so many colors to choose from. The girls started pulling out racks of dresses for their friend to try on and quickly pushed her inside a changing stall as they sat around an open room, waiting for Katara to come out and give them a fashion show. _

_Katara was in the stall looking at all the dresses; she couldn't believe a store could have so many varieties and wondered what she was getting herself into. But one dress in particular caught her eye, so she put it on. It was a crimson red dress, about knee length, strapless with seams that seemed to enhance her every womanly curve and it definitely suited her, so with satisfaction, she got out, ready to be tackled on by her friends. _

_As she stepped out into the open room where her friends were, she saw all their faces drop at seeing how perfect this dress was for her. Ino was the first one to speak and said, "Someone's got a body! And that's what I'm talking about! You definitely need to buy this one, and plus the red contrasts with your skin and eyes and hair, making you stand out even more!"_

"_I agree it was like it was made for you!" said Keiko and Sakura. _

"_Thanks, but I don't think I even have enough money for this." Replied Katara._

"_Don't worry about it, it's all on us!" replied Tenten. _

"_Thanks you guys!" the dark navy-eyed girl said as she hugged her friends. _

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_It was almost getting dark as the sunset was almost gone; the girls managed to get Katara to go to a salon to get her nails and hair done; her hair was in a perfect updo that framed her face perfectly and she had French tipped nails to go along with it. Overall, Katara felt that she didn't need all this attention, but she just allowed her friends to do this for her, since she liked seeing them happy. At the moment she was in the exact crimson red dress with black stilettos and she was ready to go home; she was definitely exhausted but tried not to show it. When she and her friends arrived at her door, she turned around to say bye and opened her door to hear, "SURPRISE!"_

"_Wow…" said girl was speechless and couldn't believe that her friends went to all this trouble for her. "Thanks for everything you guys, and I have to say, these decorations are great!"_

"_See I told you Shikamaru!" said Naruto._

"_Whatever…" replied the lazy Nara, with his hands in his pockets. _

_After opening the many presents and cutting the cake, the party was on as the teens danced and socialized with their friends. After a few hours of partying, the power somehow managed to go out, scaring everyone out of their skin, especially Katara, since she began to notice that there was a pair of crimson blood red eyes staring back at her. She loudly shrieked in terror and tried to run away, but the fact that the stranger was holding her caused her to stop struggling and once the lights were back on, she was grateful and turned around to see a face she never saw. It looked like a boy around her age, but for some reason, she seemed to see a resemblance of Itachi in him, perhaps he was his brother or something, but since she was still scared to death, she wouldn't stop screaming, until he finally let her go. Katara slowly looked around the room seeing her friends' faces along with unfamiliar ones._

_Suddenly she laughed out of nowhere, "Ha-ha, I get it, is this another surprise for me? Really funny you guys, but this whole surprise thing is getting really old."_

"_K-katara?" said Naruto. "Yeah, what is it Naruto?" asked the birthday girl._

"_Um……we've never seen any of these people in our lives, not until now at least."_

_When that was said, Katara's face paled and when she saw the same silver-haired man in her dreams, standing in her living room, she was utterly confused. _

"_My, Uchiha Katara, you've grown quite beautifully." Said a blonde haired woman (Tsunade), as she gave the girl a big hug, but once again Katara was wondering what was going on. _

"_Maybe, you should all grab a seat; everything will be explained soon enough." Replied the silver-haired man._

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_After many introductions, they all began to tell Uchiha Katara's life story, leading up to now, until said Uchiha interrupted with,"Wait, wait wait! Hold on………so what you're all saying is that I'm the lost princess of the Uchiha Clan made up of vampires and I'm half vampire and that I'm supposedly suppose to get rid of this guy named Orochimaru?" asked the confused girl._

"_That's exactly what we're saying." Said Kurenai. _

"_I think you've got the wrong girl; I mean it was nice to meet you all, but I'm not made to fight evil, I mean I don't think I could even fight for my own life, and now you're putting this whole 'I need to save a whole kingdom' thing on me?"_

"_I know this may come as a shock to you, but you are our only hope, there's not much more we can do if you're not a part of this." Said Jiraiya. "Truth is, you need to know about your past, because it will eventually catch up to you whether you like it or not; it's time for you to walk on your own two feet and be destined to be great savior you were meant to be." _

"_I wasn't expecting any of this to happen, let alone on my birthday; I mean I got a ton of surprises today, but I didn't know I'd get something like this. I have no experience with fighting, I mean at most, I've only fought when I was training with Naruto." Said the Uchiha._

"_Through time you'll learn and you'll find out that you're stronger than you know." Replied Maito Gai. "So get ready for the training of a lifetime!"_

"_I guess I'm ready." Said the Uchiha heiress._

"_Hmm…..that's the spirit, so Gai here will be teaching you taijutsu, Tsuande will teach you in the medical field, Kurenai will teach you genjutsu, Asuma, myself, along with Itachi and Sasuke will be teaching you about your Uchiha bloodline and ninjutsu, and I'll also be in charge of overseeing your training and chakra control." Replied the copy ninja. _

"_This seems like too much to handle, but I guess I'll be up to it." Said the princess._

_A warm hand was put on her shoulder and she turned around to see Naruto along with all her friends behind her, "Don't worry, Katara, we'll be right there with you."_

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**_Make sure to review! :) Thanks! _**


	4. Chapter Three: Getting Started

**Well, here's annother chapter. Hope you guys all enjoy! **

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Chapter 3: Getting Started

_After a long night of many surprises, Uchiha Katara was just glad enough to relax after partying with all her friends, and newly made friends. As she saw everyone out of her apartment after a long night of fun, she was left only with Kakashi and Itachi. Katara began to clean the room as the other two ninja decided to help as well. In a few minutes, the place seemed back to normal; after all, the two ninja seemed to be very quick on their feet and managed to get the place clean in no time. _

_As the last of the trash was being thrown away, Katara quickly took a seat next to both of the ninja and said, "Arigatou," as she slowly bowed to show her respect. _

"_No problem." Replied Kakashi as he got up to leave, leaving Katara and Itachi alone. But before making an exit, the copy cat nin said, "We'll start your training tomorrow, Katara. Early in the morning." And with that, he quickly disappeared in a puff of smoke. _

_The living room quickly got a strange mood of silence as both Uchihas were in the room alone. As Katara was going to get up and get changed out of her dress, her hand was grabbed by Itachi. As she looked deeply into his onyx eyes, she couldn't help but blush as he quickly took her into a dancing position. As her face neared his, he said, "Would you like to dance?" _

_Katara couldn't help but blush some more as she turned her head away. But her head was quickly turned back to stare at his face, as Itachi's hand touched her chin and pulled her back in. After a long moment of silence, Katara quickly replied with "But there's no music." _

"_Sometimes, you don't need any." The Uchiha replied as he bowed down and held out his hand for her. With a hint of hesitation, Katara slowly took his hand into hers and as he spun her around, Itachi saw her smile at him. As they got back in a regular position she couldn't help but continue to smile at the Uchiha. _

_"I never knew you could dance." the Uchiha heiress joked as she looked up at his face. _

_"There's just some things you don't know about me." Itachi replied with a smirk while also twirling her again as she giggled at his response. _

_After a few more minutes of dancing, Katara thought that Itachi would come and spin her again, but she suddenly felt his arms slowly pull her into his chest as they continued to dance. Her face was mere inches from his, and as she looked up at his face and continued to hide her blushing state, he whispered into her ear, "I want you to remember everything you've lost." _

_The Uchiha heiress whispered back, "I don't know if I can." As she leaned her head onto his shoulder. _

_With a smirk Itachi tipped her chin upwards and allowed her to look at him and said, "Don't worry, I'll be there every step of the way." With that, Itachi could see her smile again as he quickly spun her around and ended with a dip. _

"_I suppose that's all the time we have tonight. You have training tomorrow. And I look forward in seeing how you progress." Said Itachi as they parted. But before having the chance to leave and go to her room, Itachi quickly touched her cheek and brushed a strand of hair into place before leaving. _

'_Wow….' Katara thought as she stared at her doorway while touching her cheek as she replayed the event over and over again. After several minutes of just standing there, the Uchiha quickly decided to go to bed and change. As she laid in her bed, she couldn't help but think what interesting thing would happen the next day. _

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_Morning quickly overcame the dark, night sky as the sun beamed through the window. As Katara quickly got up from her bed, she made her way to her closet to see what she could use to wear for her training today. As she inspected every clothing item she had to offer, she found that none of them would work for her today. As she was just about to just grab some ordinary shirt and shorts, she heard a knock at the door. Katara quickly made her way down the flight of stairs and opened the door, only to see one of her friends, Keiko, outside waiting. _

"_Ohayo, Katara!" greeted the Hyuuga as Katara made her some room to enter through the door. _

"_Hey, Keiko. You don't happen to have training clothes, do you?" questioned the Uchiha as she was hoping it was true. As the Uchiha was waiting for a response, she suddenly saw that Keiko was holding onto a bag. As the Hyuuga handed her the bag, Katara quickly looked inside and saw that she had brought everything necessary for her training today. _

"_Omg! Arigatou! Keiko, you're a life-saver!" yelled Katara as she hugged her friend and jumped up and down. The Hyuuga felt like she was getting the life knocked out of her and was thinking in her head 'Where in the world did she get all this strength?' but on the outside, she was quickly saying, "Kay, you should put it on. I'm sure Kakashi, Itachi, Sasuke, and Asuma will be here any second." _

_With that being said, the Uchiha heiress quickly made her way into the bathroom and changed into her new clothes. From the looks of it, she saw that she had a nice greyish tank top with the Uchiha emblem on the back, along with a black ninja skirt with black shorts under and some ninja sandals to match. While looking back in her bag she also found a kunai holster along with a shuriken pouch. After finally figuring out how to put those two items on, she quickly put her hair into a ponytail and came out into the living room to see four more familiar faces. She came into the room smiling and quickly said good bye to Keiko as she left through the door. There was an uncomfortable silence as Katara took a seat next to Itachi. As she was fiddlig with her fingers, the silence was broken as a voice said, "Alright, let's get started. First off, I think you need to show us what you've got. After all, you did say that you've been training with Naruto for some time now," said Kakashi as he got up, while the other three males followed his example._

_The Uchiha heiress quickly got up from the couch and made her way towards the door. As all five shinobi left, well if you counted Katara as a shinobi, they all left to go to the training grounds. As they arrived there, Katara saw that her best friend, Uzumaki Naruto was there. From his position, Katara could tell that he was waiting there for awhile. A few meters from Naruto's spot stood Jiraiya and Tsunade and as all three saw them arrive, they quickly got up and met up as a group. _

"_Katara-chan!" the hyperactive ninja said as she came up to her and gave her a hug. _

_Katara quickly gave him a hug back as she laughed at his childish antics. As Naruto let go of his vice-grip hold on her, things began to get a little more serious. After a few more introductions, everyone decided to get started with her training. _

"_Alright, Katara, you'll be fighting against this." The copy cat ninja said as he pointed to a wooden pole. _

'_Oh wow……….a pole. This doesn't seem like training.' The Uchiha heiress thought, but aloud she actually said, "Umm………Kakashi-sensei, I don't see how this is going to work." But as she said that she realized that the supposed pole was moving and suddenly she realized that it was a training dummy. As she was about to turn around and retort, she quickly saw that everyone had evacuated from the battling field and were standing onto the side. As Katara turned her head back towards her opponent, she saw that he was gone. The Uchiha heiress was searching everywhere for her opponent, until she felt its presence right behind her. As an axe kick as about to land onto her side, she managed to dodge left and avoided the blow. But just when she thought she was safe, her opponent's speed was too fast for her to keep up with as the training dummy's arm collided with her gut. _

_Katara quickly clutched onto her stomach as she bent down on her knees to take in air and to recover from the blow. As she got up, she was shaking, but suddenly when the training dummy got closer to her, she managed to land a hard-hitting punch right in the middle of the dummy's body. The dummy quickly recovered from Katara's punch and charged directly at her. As it got closer, she managed to dodge every kick or punch that was thrown at her. With a closer observation of herself, she realized that she was able to keep up with the speed and she even surprised herself. As she was about to get ready to strike back, her body quickly froze as she saw a vision in her mind. _

_As Katara Uchiha was getting ready to give another blow, she saw that the dummy was going to charge at her with a fist. As the dummy got closer, she Uchiha heiress made two cloens and managed to send chakra into her feet to increase her velocity'_

_Katara quickly came back to reality in time to duck from a powerfully punch that came her way. She rapidly did a back-ahdn spring to make more room between her opponent and as her opponent stood only a few feet away from her, she quickly decided to use something that Naruto had taught her. _

'_Thank goodness Naruto taught me this.' The Uchiha heiress thought as she made the correct seals for the multi-shadow clone jutsu to make two more clones. As the dummy once again charged at her with its fist forward, she and her clones charged as well. With one more seal, Katara quickly sent chakra to her feet to increase her velocity and as she got as close as she wanted, she used her clones as a distraction. Before putting in the blow, Katara managed to make her clones disappear and quickly put in the finishing blow that caused the dummy to crack into several pieces near her feet. As the fight ended, Katara put her hands on her knees as she took a few deep breathes. _

'_Amazing……that type of chakra control is advance for someone like a beginner like herself.' Thought Tsunade as she saw that this talent would come in handy. _

'_Hn…..I see. She didn't even realize that her Sharingan was even on.' Thought Kakashi as he saw that the heiress still had her bloodline on. _

_After the fight was over, everyone came up to Katara and helped her up onto her feet. As Tsunade checked over for any serious injuries and healed any minor injuries, Katara was quickly thinking over what just happened. Her thoughts were suddenly interrupted by Asuma when he said, "Well done. I wasn't expecting something like that."_

"_Wow! I always knew that you had it in you, Kay! Believe it!" Naruto said as gave her a thumbs up. Katara gave a soft giggle as she was also proud of herself and she was glad that she was able to show that she did have some talent in her. _

"_I'd say that was pretty impressive. I never knew that you knew how to turn on your Sharingan." Said Sasuke as he handed her a bottle of water. As Katara drank from the bottle, she quickly was thinking what he just said. When her thoughts finally processed what he said, she quickly spit out the water as she turned towards the younger Uchiha and said, "W-what?!" and got up on her feet as she faced Sasuke. _

_As the younger Uchiha was about to reply to her outburst, he was interrupted by his older brother as he responded, "The Sharingan. It's the bloodline of the Uchiha clan. Here take a look." As that was said, Itachi took out a Hidden Leaf Headband and showed her, her own reflection of her eyes. As she stared at herself, her eyes widened at how her eyes were now a crimson color with tomoes around her pupils as well. She quickly turned towards Itachi and was about to ask another question that was on her mind until he interrupted with, "You must've activiated it when you felt like you were in danger. I'd say this is actually good luck. You were going to have to activate it eventually, and now that you have, we can start training you to use it as well. But I think that was a job well done for your first time." The Uchiha said as he gave her a small smile. _

"_Back to other news, I'd have to say your chakra control is highly impressive. I haven't seen anyone that could do that in a long time. At least, not for their first time." Jiraiya commended. "Good job." The white haired man said as he also gave her a thumbs up. _

"_That was definitely quite a show you know. I didn't think you could handle it, but good job. And back there, something happened. Your eyes glowed a bright white color and it seemed like you were frozen. Care to explain?" questioned the copy cat nin. _

"_I really don't know. I somehow managed to see the future. But that's ridiculous. Those things just don't happen." The Uchiha heiress answered. _

"_Actually, that makes a lot of sense. From records, I read that your own mother was a psychic. It makes sense that her trait would pass down onto you." Explained Jiraiya. _

"_For now, we need to work on your taijutsu, your Sharingan, and you've got to make sure you don't lose focus. And we also need to show you how to use your kunai and shuriken. So we've got a lot of work to do plus we need to find a way to develop this new skill you have as well." Kakashi said as he confronted his new student. _

"_Now hold on, Kakashi! We also need to go over her medical training as well. For as long as I've lived, I've never seen anyone with that skillful type of chakra control. She's definitely a prodigy in training." Interrupted Tsunade. _

'_Great…what am I getting myself into.' Thought Katara. _

"_Alright, I guess we have a lot of work to do. So…what now?" asked Katara. _

"_I think you've done enough for today. Just go out and relax for now." Replied Kakashi. _

"_Alright! Let's go get some ramen, Katara-chan!" Naruto yelled as he took hold of her hand, but as they both were about to leave, the copy cat nin took hold of Naruto's orange jump suit and stopped them both. As Naruto was about to retort, Kakashi said, "Now hold on Naruto, you're not done here. You and Sasuke wanted to have extra training with me, remember?" _

_The blonde-hyperactive ninja scratched the back of his head as he was embarrassed that he almost forgot. "Sorry, Kay. I guess some other time." Naruto replied as he let go of her hand and headed back. _

"_It's alright. Some other time." Katara replied back as she watched her best friend walk back to Kakashi. _

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**Hopefully you guys liked this chapter. I'm looking forward to starting this story up again and make sure to review! **

**Arigatou!**


	5. Chapter Four: Memories

**Well, here's the fourth chapter! :) Hopefully you readers out there are going to enjoy this. **

**I just want to start off with dedicating this chapter to xxlottexx for being my first review for this story! **

**xxlottexx: **Thanks so much for reviewing! You've given me the confidence to continue on with this story!

**Well, without any more interuptions, let's get on with the story! :] **

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Chapter 4: Memories

_After Naruto left her side, the Uchiha heiress was about to leave until she turned around and met up with Itachi. He always seemed to have that confident atmosphere around him and as she continued to stare, the silence was broken when he stated, "You know you can stop staring."_

_Katara quickly tried to hide a blush, but was completely unsuccessful as she turned to look at him again. She replied with, "Sorry. So…are you doing anything? Cause I was thinking that we could just hangout…but if you're busy, it's alright." _

"_Hn.. I think I have a better idea." The Uchiha answered as he gave her his famous smirk. She knew that Itachi had something in mind and Katara wasn't too sure if she wanted to go with him. "Here get on." The Uchiha male said as he took her hand and pushed her onto his back. As Itachi began to move, Katara felt that they were moving at a very fast pace and at the same time, she wondered where he was taking her. Without realizing it, she opened her eyes once Itachi stopped at the designated destination. As she opened her eyes, she was met up with a colorful meadow full of so many exotic flowers she had never seen before, along with a lake that was the most perfect shade of blue, that shined when the sun hit it just right. As her face dropped in awe, she didn't notice that Itachi was staring at her. As she turned to look at him, he quickly took his gaze off her. _

_Katara quickly gave a small smile and realized that she was still on his back; as she got off, she asked, "Itachi, this is beautiful, but what are we doing here?" _

"_I figured you would want to rest in a place like this and also I hope the scenery would help keep you at peace and help you remember your past." The Uchiha simply stated. _

"_Oh, but I don't think that's working. I can't really recall anything at the moment." Replied the Uchiha heiress. _

"_Then maybe I can help." The Uchiha replied as he took her hand and turned her face to make her gaze into his now crimson eyes. As she looked deeply into Itachi's crimson orbs, she suddenly felt the reality around her turn into a crimson color as she was met up with an illusion. _

"_Itachi? Where are you?" Katara yelled as she was frightened at what was going on. At that moment, Itachi was right next to her and took hold of her hand to calm her down. _

"_I brought you in this illusion to show you events in your past. Hopefully this will work. Just sit back and relax as I show you what your past looked like." Itachi explained as they jumped into the first event. _

**"_Haku-nii-san! Come on! You're too slow! Aren't you excited to hangout with Sasuke-kun today?" questioned a 5 year old Katara as she was skipping through the halls of the castle. Her 5 year old twin brother was following closely behind her and had to run just to catch up with her. _**

**"_Kay, where in the world do you get your energy?" Haku jokingly asked as he managed to stay beside his sister. _**

**"_It comes naturally, I guess." The Uchiha heiress said as she gave her brother a big smile. Both Uchiha heirs quickly made it past everyone in the castle and greeted everyone on their way out, as they made it to the door that would lead outside, they saw their parents. _**

_**Lord Uchiha was just making his daily walk around the castle with his wife. As always they quickly asked where their kids were headed and as both Uchihas went out the door, Katara replied, "To Sasuke's!" as she rapidly headed out the door. **_

_**As Lord and Lady Uchiha watched their children from the doorway, they quickly gave a laugh at how animated their daughter could be. **_

_End of flashback. _

_After several more flashbacks, Katara realized that her memory was slowly coming back to her, which made her more anxious to find out what happened to her family. After seeing Katara's reaction and seeing that these flashbacks were greatly helping, Itachi decided that it was time to show the last memory. _

"_This is the last one, Katara. I just want to warn you, it might be a little too much. Just tell me when you want me to stop." Itachi warned as he pulled Katara closer to him as he played the flashback. _

_**It seemed like a regular day in the Uchiha Kingdom, but unfortunately, it was the most devastating. Darkness surrounded everything in its path; fire enveloped the castle and turned everything into ash as all the guards tried to defend the remaining members of the Royal Family. More and more of Orochimaru's minions came in the castle and took hold of most of the Royal family's lives. As Katara left her room to see what was going on, she was met up with her father, mother, and brother fighting for her very lives. She was about to come out and help from her hiding spot but as she was about to, a huge gust of wind knocked her off balance and revealed her to the enemy. Her father and mother quickly realized that they were going to go after her and her brother, so as Orohcimaru's men were heading towards them, Uchiha Chihiro quickly yelled, "Haku! Katara! Leave now!" as the Lord and Lady of the Uchiha clan went in front of their kids and managed to protect their kids from the attack. As both twins saw that everything seemed to be under control they quickly ran for their lives. As both Uchihas ran throughout the halls, Katara screamed when a shadow jumped in front of her. She quickly realized that it was the enemy and she was deathly afraid, but just as the man was about to hurt her, Haku managed to jump in front and threw hi across the hallway. **_

**"_Katara, go now. I'll handle him." Her brother said in a serious tone as he as going to approach the man again. With a look of assurance from her brother, she left with a worried look on her face. As the one lonely princess was running for her life, she saw each member give up their lives for her. Many screams were heard as people lost their lives fighting for the royal family; the killings were done quickly and painfully, as the princess tried to block out the high shrieking screams. Three screams stood out to her; as she made her way closer to an exit and away from the minions, she heard the familiar screams of her father, mother, and most importantly her brother. She couldn't help it anymore; she fell down onto her knees and broke down into tears in the middle of the hallway. The silence was quickly destroyed when she heard several footsteps coming her way. As she shakingly got out a kunai knife, she saw that there were at least five shinobi that were working for Orochimaru right in front of her. _**

**"_Look at we've got here guys. Looks like the last remaining nuisance to Orochimaru-sama's plans." A scary-looking purple-eyed male said as he made a move towards the Uchiha heiress. Looking for other options, Uchiha Katara quickly saw another exit and skidded under the enemies' feet as they circled around her. After making her escape, she was running away as fast as she could as the evil was coming after her. _**

_**The princess had reached a dead end and her dark navy eyes widened in fear as she saw she was cornered; 'T-this is it….it's over.' Thought the heiress. Quickly enough, the vampires who were working for Orochimaru, were coming closer and closer, as Katara clutched tightly onto her silver necklace as if her life depended on it. She was rolled up into the fetal position, letting out more tears come out as she realized what was going to happen to her. Hoping for her life just to end right here, she shut her eyes, and waited for the upcoming blow; she realized that nothing was going on, she slowly opened her eyes and saw a man with silver hair spiked up with one eye covered with a headband and a mask. She recognized the man as one of her father's trustworthy advisors as well as also being one of their bodyguards. **_

**"_Kakashi-san, w-what are you doing here?" asked the princess as she was still letting out tears of fear._**

**"_Princess Katara, you know that it is my duty to protect you, now once I give you the signal, you must run toward the western corridor; there, you will find a few close friends of mine who will help get out of here. Their names are Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai; they'll know what to do." Said the silver haired man._**

_**Uchiha Katara shakingly stood up, "N-n-no-o, I-I, I won't leave you!" yelled the princess. **_

**"_I'll be right behind you, and no matter what, we'll see each other again, NOW GO!" Kakashi harshly yelled. Katara quickly sprinted into the exact direction her savior had pointed out, but she still felt that she was still being followed. She came upon an open hallway, but saw that there were still some of Orochimiaru's men on the ceiling and side walls. The only opening she had left to escape was a closed glass window. Panicking when she saw them come closer, her breathing became erratic and rapid and without anymore thought, she jumped out the window, hoping that the snow of winter would have a soft cushion for her landing. Feeling the harsh impact, she was instantly put into an unconscious state, and the last thing she saw were three unknown, shadowed figures coming towards her._**

_End of flashback. _

_As the flashback ended, Katara began to shed tears as she saw what happened to her family. In his eyes, Itachi never wanted to show her something like this, and as she cried, he quickly embraced her and allowed her to cry onto his shirt as he returned them both back to reality. _

_Back in reality, the Uchiha female was still crying on Itachi's shirt as she held onto him tightly. He tried to comfort her with soothing words, but without any success, the Uchiha decided to take her home. Seeing that Katara held onto his neck tightly, he carried her bridal style all the way to her home. They both quickly made it through the trees and into the familiar area of the Hidden Leaf Village. In mere minutes, Itachi and Katara managed to arrive at the front door of her apartment. As if by magic, Itachi managed to get inside and slowly put the heiress down onto the couch as he got up to grab some tissues. _

_When he came back, he saw that she was still crying and as he handed over the tissues, she dug her face into his shirt again as she cried her heart out. After a few more moments of allowing Katara to cry on him, Itachi lifted her head up to be met up with puffy, red eyes. Still with more tears coming down, Itachi wiped away the tears that were falling and embraced her in a hug. Staying in the position that they were in, the Uchiha male whispered, "It wasn't your fault if that's what you're thinking. It was never your fault; you couldn't have known that this was coming."_

_As he said that Katara lifted her head up and met up with his eyes as she said, "Itachi….you don't understand, before any of that happened, as a child, I did have a vision, like the one I had today. I saw that something like that was going to happen. But I shook it off. Don't try to persuade me that it wasn't my fault because it really was." The Uchiha heiress said while tearing up even more as she looked up at him. _

"_Katara, listen…..even if it was your fault, the best thing you can do for them now is to help everyone that's suffering."said the male Uchiha. As Itachi finished up with his speech, Katara quickly wiped her tears away and replied with, "Arigatou, Itachi-kun. It's just…..I wasn't ready for something like that," while also giving said person a hug as her tears disappeared from her tear-stained face. _

_Uchiha Itachi got up from the couch and turned around with his hand held out. A confused Uchiha heiress looked at the hand as if it was some weird object, but after awhile of just staring at it in confusion, Itachi seemed to have finally lost his patience and said, "Come on, it's basically time for dinner. You should eat something; it'll make you feel better." _

_Without any hesitation, Katara grabbed his hand and quickly followed him towards the door towards the ramen stand. Somehow on the inside, Katara felt that eating would make her feel better and as she and Itachi made their way to Ichiraku, she overheard the voice of Naruto as he bragged about his new skills that he learned during training. _

_Without even noticing, Katara giggled as she entered into the stand, and as she took a seat, Naruto managed to take notice that she was sitting next to him along with Itachi sitting next to her. _

"_Katara, you won't believe it, but I totally learned this new jutsu today! Next time, when you get the chance I'll show you!" the blonde shinobi said as he happily slurped away at his ramen. _

_Giggle…. "That's great to hear, Naruto." The Uchiha replied. _

"_So what did you do today, Katara?" questioned Naruto as he continued eating, while Katara and Itachi just got their ramen. As Katara separated her chopsticks, she replied with a small smile and took a quick look at Itachi as she told Naruto , "Let's just say I got a chance to revisit my past." _

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**Make sure to review! I definitely want to hear all your thoughts on how the story is going and what you thought of the chapter!**

**Thanks once again! **

**--katara **


	6. Chapter Five : Discovering Her True Self

**Sorry that I haven't been updating that frequently, but i would just like to thank theHidden1 and xxlottexx for being my first two reviews on this chapter!**

**I hope to have more reviews that will encourage me to update more and help me along this process. **

**Thanks once again! Now on with the story.....**

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Chapter 5: Discovering Her True Self

_After a few more weeks of intensive training of all the types of training ever possible, Uchiha Katara managed to move very quickly through everything. Although she just barely started, she was a fast learner and definitely had inherited the talent that the Uchiha Clan was known for. _

_After training nonstop everyday, the Uchiha heiress was currently at the training grounds at a very early time in the morning. At the moment, she was on her own solo training and working on advancing her Sharingan eyes. After spending barely a few minutes setting up the targets, she quickly got into the center of the area and was ready to practice. Startting off with her practice, she took out at least 6 kunai knives, with three in each hand. Soon enough she transferred chakra to her feet to jump more than 20 feet in the air, and as she turned her body to have her head directly above the ground. And before her body would fall, she quickly turned on her bloodline, which allowed her to see every target. She quickly took aim and released all the kunai towards their targets, and as clink after clink was heard, she landed onto her feet, and opened her eyes as she checked if all the targets were hit. She carefully checked all her targets and realized that she was once again able to hit the one behind the boulder as well. With a smile, she was always happy with practicing with her kekkai genkai and she was glad that she took up the chance to actually learn the path of a ninja. And as a plus, it also helped that her special powers of speed and looking into the future helped as well. _

_The princess also managed to advance her special powers as well; not only did she managed to increase her speed with Gai-sensei's crazy training schedule with weights on her feet and also doing silly exercises such as running around the village on your own two hands. She had always believed that these things were ridiculous, but she couldn't deny that the results were amazing. Everyday, she finally figured out that through meditation, she could control and manage her future-seeing powers along with having even more control over molding her chakra. _

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_After two more hours of training of punches and kicks and other chakra control exercises, Katara decided that it was time to get home quickly and get ready for her job at the tea shop. Everytime she came in there, she always felt a sense of home there and as she quickly looked at herself in the mirror, she quickly put her hair in a bun, and was off in casual clothes to the Kobayashi Tea Shop/Café. _

_Katara arrived directly on time as always and greeted Sayuri-baa-chan and Akina with a smile as she put her apron on in the back of the shop. She was ready in about 2 minutes and as she got out to serve the customers, she noticed that there were several more people at the place than on a regular basis. _

'_That's strange. I don't recognize half the people here. From the look of their headbands, they're ninja from the Hidden Mist Village.' Thought Katara as she looked throughout the whole room. _

_As Katara broke out from her trance, she overheard a scream and she quickly turned her body towards the noise. It seemed that one of the Mist ninja was upset about something and started to tip things over, such as the table. The blue-haired shinobi had intense dark-green eyes and as Katara slowly watched him, he threw the table through the window, which caused the glass to smash into pieces. She slightly shook at the sound of the glass striking through the window, and after an act like that, all the customers bascally left the place. _

_The Uchiha princess suddenly heard another scream, when she saw that another one of the Mist nin's followers pushed Akina to the ground. At that moment, Katara completely snapped and took off her apron as she decided that she was going to approach the group of ninja. _

"_Sayuri-baa-chan, stay back, I'll handle this." growled the Uchiha female as she slightly showed her anger and fangs and went over the counter to make her way towards the group._

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"_How dare you give me something like this! As expected from a place that's this trashy!" the blue-haired leader yelled at Akina as she stayed on the ground. _

_"I-I'm sorry, sir." stammered the defenseless girl as she showed fear in her eyes. _

_"Well, you better be...now go and get me another one!" screamed the angry Mist nin. _

_Suddenly, a voice from behind Akina said, "If you don't like the service here, just leave. You and your group has caused enough trouble for one day." _

_As Katara approached the group, she felt that all eyes were on her after she made her statement. She quickly helped Akina from the ground and as both girls stood beside each other, the blue-haired Mist ninja slowly circled them. Katara observed him until he stopped and said to her, "Well, well, what do we have here? You must have a lot of guts to stand up to me. I like your spunk, how about you and me go out sometime? The name's Kenta."_

"_I'd rather not. And I don't mean to sound rude, but you need to leave." The Uchiha said as she was losing her patience and tightened her fists at her sides. _

"_Really? Well, I don't think any of my friends want to leave, until you say yes to my request." Replied Kenta as he tipped Katara's chin up to see his face. His dark-green eyes deeply penetrated her gaze and as she looked at his eyes, she got the courage to stand up and decided to take things in her own hands. _

_She quickly took hold of Kenta's white-collared shirt and as she held him against a wall, she turned on her Sharingan eyes to make it known that she meant business along with baring out her fangs. "Listen, alright, you have no business here! You hurt my friend, and if you don't get out now, you'll regret it!" With that, Katara slowly let the Mist nin drop to the ground as she backed away, waiting for his response. _

"_I'd like to see you try, princess." The Mist ninja said as he got out a kunai knife. "All of you, stay out of this," Kenta ordered as he men were about to get involved, but instead, circled around the two shinobi. Katara had told Akina to stay in the back with her grandmother, while she would handle this. As Akina left, Katara quickly got out an extra kunai that she always kept with her. _

"_Bring it on." The Uchiha said as she got into a fighting stance. Kenta quickly made his move as he struck Katara with a slight kunai scratch to her calf as she dodged most of the blow. She quickly got into a lower stance as he went in for another attack. As his blow was about to inflict damage, Katara did a backflip over her opponent and was now behind him. As she stood behind him, she put her kunai close to his throat and slowly threatened him with death as she made the kunai come closer and closer. _

"_Looks like it's over." Said the Uchiha. _

_She saw a smirk slowly make its way onto Kenta's face as he replied, "I don't think so," as his water clone disintegrated. _

_Katara panicked, but regained her composure as she saw the real Kenta jump down from the ceiling. He quickly threw his kunai to the side and put his two fists in front of him, showing that he was ready to move on with hand to hand combat. Katara also put her kunai away and got ready for a taijutsu battle. Kenta quickly charged at Katara, and he managed to hit her gut as she took in air as the hit made it hard to breathe. A poof was heard as soon as the blow hit; the Mist nin realized that it was a clone and as he turned around, he saw that Katara was falling from the sky with an axe kick directed at him. Without a fast enough response to the attack, Kenta was hit head on as the kick caused a lot of damage. As Katara turned around to face him again, she quickly got behind him and hit his pressure point, once and for all, ending the fight. _

_Seeing that their leader was defeated by a mere girl, Kenta's followers quickly evacuated from the building, leaving Kenta behind in a bloody mess. _

_After seeing that they were gone, Katara's legs slumped down to the ground. She suddenly felt that the whole room was spinning and felt very sluggish. Her vision was unclear, and as Sayuri-baa-chan and Akina came out to check on her, she only heard them call her name over and over again before her navy orbs slowly closed and blacked-out, but not before, seeing the same crimson orbs that were so familiar. _

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_After a fight with Kenta from the mist, Katara was quickly rushed to the hospital due to being poisoned from his weapon. She was currently being held in the emergency room as medic nin, along with Tsunade were working on her. The poison was quickly making its way throughout her body and in order to save her life, Tsunade had to work fast. _

"_Alright, did you get the items I wanted, Shizune?" asked the medic nin towards her assistant. _

"_Hai, Lady Tsuande." Shizune replied. _

"_Alright, all of you, you need to hold her still while I perform this procedure. I'm going to use this technique to get the poison out of her body and I need you to have the buckets ready to dispose of the poison." The hazel-eyed women said as she took hold of a blue liquid and slowly moved it through Katara's body to get some of the poison out. Katara's body began to move and tremble on its own as Tsunade was continued the process. As the Uchiha's body continued to move more erractically, it took about 10 medics to hold her down in order to keep her still. _

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"_She's been in there for a long time. I can't believe this happened to her." Naruto said aloud as he paced his way back and forth in the waiting room. _

"_Naruto, just sit down; I'm sure you're making everyone else really nervous as well." Replied a calm Sasuke as he leaned up against the wall. _

"_N-naruto, I-I-I'm sure she's fine. J-just be calm and sit down." Said a shy Hinata as she patted the seat next t her for the blonde to sit. _

_"Hinata's right, Naruto. Just sit down." agreed Hyuuga Keiko, but as she voiced out her own opinion, she couldn't help but feel a bit worried for her friend. _

"_Hn……….I just find it amazing that she was able to defeat that guy." Itachi said out of nowhere. Everyone slowly turned towards him and looked at him like he was crazy, but as that mood died down, he explained by saying, "That man, she went up against, was a missing nin, Hara Kenta, known for several crimes along with selling illegal weapons and poisons throughout the Land of Waves. He's known for killing his opponents with seemingly harmless poisons." _

"_So, do you think he was up to anything? Or was it just a coincidence that he was here?" questioned the silver-haired Jounin. _

"_If my suspicions are correct, I don't think he was just here to sell weapons, he was after something else. That poison that he used against her, it's not typically a poison that instantly kills an opponent. It's main effect is to paralyze the opponent." Replied the older Uchiha. _

"_So what you're saying, Itachi, that he was after Katara." Stated Sasuke. _

"_Do you think he's found her?" questioned Kakashi. _

"_It's a possibility. We just need to make sure to watch over her carefully." Replied Jiraiya as he was broken from his trance of watching the sky from the window. _

_The red light from the emergency room was turned off as soon as Tsunade left and met up with several of Katara's friends. _

"_Is she alright, Tsunade-baa-chan?" asked the blonde-hyperactive ninja as he rose from his seat. _

"_She'll be fine now. She's just resting. Let her rest for now, I'm sure you can see her later." Replied the medic._

"_Can we just watch over her while she sleeps?" questioned the pink-haired kunoichi. _

"_Alright, just don't make any noise. She needs her rest." The blonde women said as she left from the waiting room and allowed her friends to make their way to her room. _

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_As all of her friends entered the room, they saw that their Uchiha friend was currently sleeping on a nice, soft bed. She looked at peace and as everyone took a seat to quietly watch over her, she smiled in her sleep when she felt Itachi's hand hold onto hers. _

_Itachi gave a small, quick smile towards her too, but it quickly disappeared as he was sitting near her bed, holding her hand. Of course, a few people saw his smile, including Sasuke, who gave a smile of his own when he saw his brother smile at her. _

_After a few more minutes, Itachi got up and felt all eyes on him as he was about to leave the room. Before he left, he said aloud, "I'm going to go get her something." _

_After just watching his form leave, Sasuke quickly left as well, after his older brother. In the hallway, he was finally able to catch up to him at the hospital's flower shop. It seemed that Itachi was too caught up in choosing flowers that he didn't notice his brother come up, until he asked aloud, "What are you doing here, Sasuke?" _

"_Hn…I thought you were up to something. Seems like you have a huge interest in her." Sasuke said as he smirked at his brother. _

_Itachi didn't respond back to his brother as he continued to look around the flower shop and found the exact flower he was looking for, white cherry blossoms. He slowly picked a dozen out and paid for them, while Sasuke followed behind him. _

"_So are you just interested because you two had an arranged marriage, or is this more?" questioned Sasuke as he walked side by side with his brother on the way to Katara's room. _

_Itachi continued to stay silent and was about to say something, until he was interrupted by Sasuke when he said, "You know, there's a lot at stake here. I've seen several guys look at her in this village, and in the type of situation that we have, we don't know what's going to happen next. You should tell her how you really feel." With that being said, Sasuke quickly left his brother's side to go into Katara's room. Itachi stood there thinking over what Sasuke had just said, and after several more minutes of just standing in the hallway, with the cherry blossoms in his hand, he slowly turned the knob of the door and saw everyone look at him. _

_But his attention was turned towards the navy-haired heiress when he saw that she was awake and sitting up in bed. He slowly approached her bedside and held up the flowers in front of her. Katara slowly looked up at Itachi's face and gave the most beautiful smile he had ever seen and without even realizing it, she got up and gave him a hug. Itachi responded back after a few seconds and as she continued to hug him, he was actually hiding a slight hint of red on his face. _

"_Arigatou, Itachi-kun! These are beautiful! I can't believe after all these years, you remembered my favorite flower." The Uchiha princess said as she released her hug and looked at the pretty flowers. _

"_It was no problem. You deserve it, after all, you showed that you have true strength." Said the Uchiha prodigy. _

"_Thanks." Replied Katara as she thought, 'I guess I am strong; maybe I can overcome this and help those who are suffering.' _

_Kakashi was watching from afar at the situation and was smiling behind his mask, but in the back of his mind, he couldn't help that things were going to start to change soon. 'But she seems ready for anything,' the silver-haired Jounin thought as he watched Katara from the corner of his eye. _

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"_Orochimaru-sama, seems that a couple of your men found some interesting information." Said a young man with grey hair, wearing glasses. _

"_Well then, Kabuto, bring them in." the sinister snake said as he felt the news would catch his attention. _

_Orochimaru's right-hand man quickly opened the door and allowed the men in the room. The three men stood in front of their leader and bowed down to show their respect. They all kneeled down and a brown-haired man, kneeling in the middle, opened his mouth to speak. _

"_Orochimaru-sama, we got the information that you wanted." _

"_Well done, Makoto. I knew sending you and Kenta into that village would pay off, so tell me, what did you find?" questioned Orochimaru. _

"_She's living there and it seems she managed to pick up on some training." Replied the mist ninja. _

"_Hn…..that won't matter, we'll just get to her first." Replied the snake as he licked his lips as a result of feeling anxious. "Kabuto, get the Sound Five ready, I think we need to take care of this as quick as possible."_

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**Well, hope you guys liked this chapter! :) **

**And I hope to hear what you guys think of the story so far. Make sure to review!**

**-katara**


	7. Chapter Six: Trouble Is Brewing

**I'd first like to start off with saying thanks to all my reviewers! Especially, Venza, who I'd like to give shout out to! **

**Venza: Thank you so much! I was glad to hear what you thought of the story so far! **

**Now without delaying you guys, I'd like to introduce you, to a new chapter! Enjoy!**

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Chapter 6: Trouble Is Brewing

_After spending a couple more days at the Konoha Hospital, it was finally the day of Katara's release. As she happily walked out of her room and into the elevator, feeling so refreshed, she silently waited for the elevator to take her down the flight of floors to the ground floor. While in the elevator she was humming a cheery tune that clearly matched her cheery mood. The Uchiha felt so relieved to get away from the hospital. Of course in her mind, she was glad that they were able to heal her, but after a few more hours when she woke up, she insisted that she was fine. But due to the overly cautious character of Tsunade, Katara was forced to remain in the hospital for a few more days before getting released. But during that period in time, she was just glad that people took time out of their schedules to visit her, especially Itachi. In fact, after being released, she realized that Itachi visited her everyday. _

_The elevator door quickly opened as it arrived at its destination; the Uchiha heiress slowly walked out of the elevator, dressed in a pure white dress with a light blue ribbon tied at the waist. The Uchiha made her way towards the front desk and met up with the nurse there to sign out. The nurse looked up from her paper work to look at Katara when she said, _

"_Hi…umm…I'm here to actually sign out." Replied the Uchiha. _

_The red-head nurse replied, "Oh, you must be Katara. Of course! Just sign here on the clipboard and you can make your way out with your two friends over there." _

"_Thank you…" Katara said as she signed herself out, but then suddenly said, "Umm………wait….did you say two friends?" the Uchiha asked as a confused expression showed on her face. _

_The red-haired nurse quickly pointed to the nearby corner, and clearly, Katara saw that both the Uchiha brothers were siting on the couch, waiting for her. The Uchiha princess slowly turned back to say something, but was interrupted when the nurse said, "They've been waiting for you ever since the early morning today. Actually, I would have to say the older man has been waiting for you for awhile. You must be very fortunate; he must be a great boyfriend." _

_With that comment, Katara started to blush but then retorted quickly, "H-he's not my boyfriend. Just a friend." And with that the Uchiha left as the red tint on her cheeks disappeared as she approached the two Uchihas. _

"_Ohayo, Itachi-kun, Sasuke-kun!" Katara greeted as they stood up when they both saw her. _

"_Hey, Katara, ready to go?" asked Sasuke. _

"_Yep! But what are you guys doing here? I could've gone home by myself." Stated the Uchiha female as all three Uchihas left through the hospital's sliding doors. _

_All three Uchihas continued on their way to Katara's apartment as Itachi answered her question, "You forgot haven't you?.........You can't be left alone, which was why we were both sent to pick you up." _

_Katara quickly brushed off her embarrassment of being forgetful and quickly said, "Oh yeah….sorry about that," while the Uchiha also scratched the back of her head. _

"_So how was your stay there?" questioned Sasuke as he turned towards her to hear her response. _

"_It's been good. It was great when you guys visited too! Thanks so much! Especially you, Itachi." Katara said as she jokingly hit Itachi on the arm and giggled. _

_In his own mind, Itachi couldn't help but feel happy at the comment that Katara just made, and he could clearly see that she was happy to be out in the open again. As all three Uchihas continued on their walk together, they continued in silence as all three were lost in their own thoughts. All of a sudden, both Sasuke and Itachi realized that Katara stopped suddenly in her own tracks. As they both stooped down to her eye level, they both realized that her eyes were glowing a bright white color, which meant she was having a vision. _

_The sky was a dark, gray color while everyone in the Hidden Leaf Village was hurriedly running away from something. From a distance in her vision, Katara saw that from afar, a couple of Sound Ninja and Leaf Ninja were fighting against each other. In other part of town, the Uchiha saw that the village was slowly crumbling down into rumble with fires spreading everywhere as children and civilians ran for their lives. Suddenly a scream was heard out of nowhere as fro the corner of her eyes, Katara saw several people fall down to the ground as blood was spread everywhere. Everyone in the village was running away and as she looked closer into her vision, she was shocked and scared out of her mind when she saw a pale face with such scary, golden eyes. And with that her vision ended as she saw the snake's real face. _

_Itachi and Sasuke realized that something ass wrong as Katara suddenly was out from her vision and kneeled down onto the ground, holding her head as her body began to shake out of control. Both Uchihas put their hands on her shoulders to calm her down and as her body slowly stopped on its own, out of nowhere, they heard her whisper, "This is bad." Itachi and Sasuke managed to calm her down completely and as they took a seat on a park bench, she slowly told them what she saw. _

"_There was fire and blood everywhere. I saw his face…..they're coming here soon." The Uchiha heiress said as she looked straight ahead of her. _

_Without any hesitation, Itachi looked at his brother and without even talking, Sasuke disappeared, while Itachi managed to get Katara on her feet in order to head towards the Hokage's office. _

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_After what had just happened, Sasuke had quickly left right away to go tell the others. As he made it to their meeting place on the outskirts of the Uchiha Kingdom's walls, he swung open the door and met up with Kakashi, Jiraiya, Tsunade, Gai, Asuma, and Kurenai. _

"_This is quite a surprise……we weren't expecting you today, Sasuke." Gai said as he went up to close the door. _

"_This seems urgent, so what is it?" questioned Kakashi. _

"_First sit down and calmly explain what is going on." Said the red-eyed Jounin as she patted the seat next to her. The Uchiha rapidly took a seat down on the couch and was ready to explain what had just happened. _

"_She had a vision. Not just an ordinary one. She told us that Orochimaru is coming towards the Hidden Leaf Village." With that statement being said, everyone in the room was shocked. _

"_This is way too soon. Jiraiya, didn't you say that Orochimaru was still getting his troops together?" asked Asuma as everyone turned towards the Toad Sage to hear his response. _

"_That's what I heard from a reliable source. But it seems that he managed to get recruits even faster than we could've ever imagined." Replied Jiraiya. _

"_So what now?" questioned the medic kunochi. _

"_We should be expecting them to come in soon. He'll probably send the rest of the Sound Five to go after her. Our fears of Orochimaru finding her have finally arrived." Replied the silver-haired Jounin. _

"_We need to go spread the word. Naruto along with her other friends need to know and we need to start preparing for it as well. We now know that we need to be on alert. She cannot be left alone during this time, ever!" Gai said. _

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_The third hokage was sitting in his office, carefully reading over a specific treaty thatwas given to him that morning. As he continued to read over what the treaty covered, the door quickly swung open as the hokage looked up from his paper work and saw the two Uchihas. The Third Hokage saw the urgent face of Katara and knew that the reason for their obtrusive entrance was very important. _

_Both Uchihas entered the room and as Itachi closed the door, he quickly took a seat next to Katara as she was getting ready to explain what she had seen in her vision. _

_The Third listened carefully to what was said and as Katara finished with her explanation, they were all met with a moment of silence as they were waiting for the Hokage's response to the situation. After a few more moments of no noise, the hokage got up from his chair, looked towards the window and addressed both shinobi with, "I'm aware of the current situation. But I'm afraid that the two of you don't understand the situation here." The hokage suddenly turned towards both Uchihas and directly addressed them by saying, "I can't just send out most of our skilled shinobi out on watch without causing too many problems that the citizens don't need to worry about right now. In these tough times, we need the people to feel at peace. For now, I'll make sure that my closest guards know what is going on, but other than that, I can't do much more. But when the time comes, where I have to give up my life to protect this town, I will." _

_Katara felt defeated as she heard what the hokage had just said. Inside, the Uchiha had wanted the Third to take a stand and take drastic action, even if it meant to cause unnecessary action that would disrupt the civilians. Itachi has sensed the disappointment that Katara had felt when he heard of the hokage's response, and as both Uchihas got up to leave, Itachi stopped in his tracks. _

"_Katara, go up ahead of me. I need to talk to the hokage about something else." Said Itachi. _

_Without questioning what her friend would be up to, Katara replied with an "Okay," and left the room. Knowing that Katara was gone, Itachi slowly turned towards the hokage and exclaimed, "How can you just sit there and not take any action?!" _

_The hokage slowly approached Itachi until he was in front of him and said, "Itachi, sometimes action isn't necessary. And in this moment, I don't think it is. For the moment, what you need is knowledge. Information can be the most valuable thing in this type of situation." _

"_What do you mean?" the Uchiha asked as he looked at the old man suspiciously. _

_Hokage replied with, "Think about it this way, in every mission, you need to have information or at least gather information in order for it to be a success. Information is the main component that makes a mission a success or failure. You better get more information on Orochimaru. And also, how's the rebellion group doing, Itachi?"_

_The male Uchiha replied, "We've gotten many recruits from all over the globe." _

"_Good, because we're going to be needing them." The Third responded as he gave the Uchiha a wink and handed him over a thick, green covered book. The Uchiha looked over the book quickly and was about to ask what it was for, but was interrupted when the Third said, "That book that I just gave you contains the information that you need. It's actually confidential information on Orochimaru, along with other facts you might need on the journey. Use it well." _

_The Uchiha slowly left and bowed to the hokage. As Itachi made it through the hallway of the tower, he saw Katara waiting for him and as the Uchiha heiress saw her friend come out from the room, she slowly got up and followed behind his form. _

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**Stay tuned! I know this chapter was more of a "filler" sort of thing, but I would still be happy to have reviews! **

**Thanks!**

**-katara**


	8. Chapter Seven: New Discoveries

**Well, here's another chapter for you guys! Hope you all enjoy! And sorry for it being so short. **

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Chapter 7: New Discoveries

_On the walk to Katara's apartment, back from the hokage's office, it was very quiet as both Uchihas slowly made their way up the stairs and through the hallways, until finally reaching the doorway. Katara slowly made her way in with Itachi closely following behind her. _

_They both entered into the nice, organized home and as they turned the corner into the living room, Katara was surprised to see al of her friends along with her guardians in the room. With a look full of shock on her face, she quickly turned her confused face to be met up with Uchiha Itachi's face as he sat down on the couch and started to explain the situation. _

"_Katara, you should sit down for this." Said the older Uchiha as he took out a green covered book. After Katara suspiciously looked at the Uchiha, she slowly took a seat next to him, while her friends stared at the book on the table. "I actually told everyone to meet up here to learn some news. Lord Hokage gave me this book and he said that there was some information in here that oucld be valuable to us." _

"_So Itachi, what you're saying is that this book might have all the answers and information we need on Orochimaru?" questioned Naruto as he stood up and stepped closer to the book. _

"_Exactly. Naruto. But the only problem was that when I tried to open the book, it would remain closed. I have no clue on how to open it." Said the Uchiha as he sat there in front of the book with a look of frustration. _

"_Itachi," the Uchiha princess said as she put her hand on his shoulder and continued with, "Well, maybe we can just try again." Replied Katara as she looked at the book. But as the Uchiha female stared at the book even more, a strange feeling came over her as she felt somewhat attached to the book. As she bent in closer to the table to look at the book more closely, everyone's eyes widened as soon as the green book floated up into her hands. _

_Uchiha Katara too also had her eyes opened wide at what just happened along with the most confused face in the world. She slowly looked up from the book in her hand and scanned her friends' faces and in them, she too found confusion. _

"_K-katara, what j-just happened?" questioned Hinata as she broke the silence. _

"_I have no idea, Hinata……" the Uchiha slowly replied as she turned her attention back to the book. As she stared at the green covered book in her hands, she quickly tried to pry open the book, but with no luck, it wouldn't budge. After a few more tries, the Uchiha suddenly gave up as she set the book on her lap. Her friends had watched her while she tried to open the book and as they say her give up, they didn't have any more ideas at hand. _

"_So how are we supposed to get that thing open now?" questioned Kiba as Akamaru barked in response. _

"_I have no idea…..if it won't open this way……." The Uchiha said as she paused to consider other methods to unlock the book. But as soon as an idea hit her, she quickly took the book from her lap and tried another technique. _

"_Kay, you didn't finish your sentence…..are you….?" But the hyperactive blonde didn't finish as he suddenly saw that as the Uchiha gathered chakra into her hand and as her hand continued to glow everyone watched in awe, until finally the book opened. _

"_What the heck just happened here?" questioned Ino as she, just like everyone else was amazed. _

"_How, how did you do that, Katara?" asked Sasuke as he too was curious. _

"_It was an old trick I learned from Tsunade actually." The Uchiha heiress replied as she looked at her medic teacher and smiled. Tsunade also smiled back and was surprised that her chakra control was so well to be used in this type of situation. _

"_So you actually managed to shape your chakra and make it thin enough to slit through the seal that was on the book." Stated Itachi as he just had explained everything to everyone in the room. _

"_Exactly…." Answered Katara. _

"_That's quite a feat. You've only been training for barely 2 months and you've come this far?" asked the silver-haired Jounin. _

"_Well, I've put in a lot of time for everything, but besides that, let's see what the book says." The Uchiha heiress said as she and everyone else gathered around in a circle to see what was written in the book. _

_After about an hour reading through the book, Katara quickly turned to the next page but saw that it was empty. As she checked page after page after page, she was shocked to see that about half of the book was full of blank pages. _

"_Th-that can't be all this book has. There has to be more." Katara said as she searched through the book again. _

"_You've got to be kidding me….how can that book be half empty?!"exclaimed Naruto as he showed his frustration. _

"_So that's all we learned about Orochimaru…only about a more detailed explanation of his experiments and jutsus and how he started to become one of the most powerful shinobi in the world." the younger Uchiha brother said as he too showed his anger. _

"_Sasuke…." Katara said as she got up and gentle looked at him and held him at his shoulders and said, "Calm down, this is only the beginning, maybe this just meant we had to all retrace our steps and first learn more about the enemy." _

_The Uchiha female turned towards everyone else and said, "Maybe Lord Hokage knows that there's something else in this book. We should ask him as soon as we get a chance." _

"_That would be the next best thing…..he probably knows a lot more than we do. But at the moment he's tied up with meetings with the council in a nearby town in order to instate a new treaty. He won't be back; the earliest, I heard would be about four days." Said Kakashi. _

"_Then until then, we have to just wait it out until he comes back." Said Katara as she gently put the mysterious green covered book on the table. _

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**Sorry again if this chapter is too short.... I had wanted to have it a bit longer. **

**I promise all of you out there that the next chapter will have some action to it! **

**Until then, hope to hear from you guys! Make sure to review! :)**

**-Katara**


	9. Chapter Eight: An Unfortunate Meeting

**Sorry to all my readers that I haven't been able to update once a week as I would've liked. I've just been really busy with a lot of things even though it is still summer. **

**But I hope you guys like this chapter and make sure to review at the end! Sorry if it's so short again!**

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The Uchiha female turned towards everyone else and said, "Maybe Lord Hokage knows that there's something else in this book. We should ask him as soon as we get a chance."

"That would be the next best thing…..he probably knows a lot more than we do. But at the moment he's tied up with meetings with the council in a nearby town in order to instate a new treaty. He won't be back; the earliest, I heard would be about four days." Said Kakashi.

"Then until then, we have to just wait it out until he comes back." Said Katara as she gently put the mysterious green covered book on the table.

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**Chapter 8: An Unfortunate Meeting**

_"That would be the best thing to do. As for now, we just need to wait and be cautious." the silver-haired Jounin said as he was leaning against the living room wall. _

_"What do you mean by being cautious, Kakashi?" asked the heiress as she turned to look at her sensei and met up with his eye. _

_"Just be careful....I have a feeling that something bad is going to happen, and it's just another moment in time before it happens, Katara." answered Kakashi. _

_With a confused look on her face she quickly replied back with, "Umm........okay." and then rapidly went back to look at the book, while she waited for anyone else to break the silence. As she she looked around the whole room with her navy eyes, she noticed that everyone had the same expression as Kakashi had in his eye. As she turned to have her gaze reach the older Uchiha's eyes, she realized he had the same look too. As she braced herself for everyone's warnings of being careful, she patiently waited for someone to say something. _

_After a few more moments, the Uchiha heiress heard Itachi say something aloud, and with that she slowly turned towards him to hear what he wouls say; "For now, we can all leave and just wait to see what happens. I'm sure Katara doesn't want to hear everyone's concerns." the Uchiha had said and form the corner of her eyes, Katara couldn've sworn that he gave her a small smile. She in turn also gave him a smile as she was relieved that he was able to stop everyone else from saying anything more to her. _

_"Alright then, since we're not needed here, we'll all leave then." stated Sasuke as he got up from his seat and headed towards the door. After a few momre moments, every else followed his example, but as the heiress watched them leave, she still saw the concerned look in their eyes. _

_As the last of her guests was about to leave, Katara swiftly got up from her seat and walked towards the door with her guest. She slowly turned the knob of the door for the older Uchiha and as she watched him step outside and face his back towards her, she quickly said, "Arigatou, Itachi-kun...." as she smiled at the end. _

_The black-haired male turned towards the heiress and with a smile and shine in his eyes, he turned towards her and replied with, "No problem." And with that, in less than a second later, he disappeared in the flash as the Uchiha heiress stood there a bit dazed. _

_As she slowly closed the door of her apartment, she quickly leaned her back against the doorframe as she tried to slow down her heart rate. Just looking into his eyes, the Uchiha heiress couldn't help but blush and as she put her hand on her chest, she felt her heart beat rapidly from just being in his presence. _

_Her heartbeat returned back to its calm rate after a few minutes and as she came back to sit down on her couch, she tried to get her thoughts of Itachi out of her mind while looking through the thick, green book again. But as she continued to search through the book, one thing she found out for sure was that she just couldn't stop thinking about the Uchiha. _

_

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_As the darkness of the night approached the sky, the Uchiha heiress was found to be getting ready to join her Hyuuga friend at a new restaurant spot. _

_Getting ready for her meeting with the Hyuuga, the heiress quickly ran to the shower, and removed her clothing. As her ivory skin hit the warm water of the shower, she was glad to feel so relaxed as she got rid of all of her tension inside her. After about another 3 hours of looking through the book, Katara couldn't find anymore news and as a result, she had been stressed and tense. As the Uchiha lathered and rinsed shampoo from her hair, she quickly got out from the shower and stepped out into the nice, cool air of her bathroom. As she wiggled her toes against the soft rug underneath her feet, she swiftly wrapped a towel around her form and exited as she went up to her closet to choose an outfit. _

_Standing in front of her medium-sized, wooden closet, she quickly scanned each piece of clothing, until her eye caught a slight tinge of blue. As she picked up the dress, she knew that this was going to be the dress to wear for her night out with Keiko. The dress a strapless, deep blue colored dress and as Katara looked at it over again, she was excited to wear it out as she also rushed to get out silver heels to match. _

_Katara quickly managed to dry her hair within a few minutes and as she quickly slipped into her dress and put on her heels, she made it just on time as she heard the doorbell ring. As she walked towards the door, her heels slowly clicked onto the floor. As Katara straightened her dress, she gave a big sigh, opened the door, and met up with her Hyuuga friend in a one-strapped, light lavendar dress. _

_"Ready to go, Kay?" asked the white-eyed girl as she stood outside. _

_"Of course, Keiko!" exclaimed the Uchiha as she quickly joined her friend outside, locked her apartment door, and both the Hyuuga and Uchiha headed out for a night of fun. _

* * *

_As the night passed on, Keiko and Katara continued to hang out and talk over dinner at the new restaurant famous for exotic foods. And as they left the restaurant, they found that they lost track of time as it was already very late at night and barely anyone was outside; they made their way towards Katara's apartment but as they headed towards an empty alley, they both couldn't help but feel a bit scared. _

_The Uchiha heiress suddenly felt an unfamiliar chakra presence and turned around to see an older women with orange hair with intense red-orange eyes. (Tayuya) _

_As Keiko and Katara met up face to face with one of the Sound Five, in her mind, Keiko knew that they had to find a way out. Without any other thought in mind, the Hyuuga quickly took her friend's hand in hers and ran towards the opposite side, hoping that Orochimaru's minion wouldn't catch up. Keiko looked behind her shoulder and saw that the strange female was nowhere in site and as she turned around, she was shocked to see Tayuya in front of them. As the sound kunoichi stared menacingly at them, both girls knew that they had no choice but to fight her. The sound kunoichi quickly took out a flute and as they were about to ask the other what was going to happening, they felt three other unfamiliar presences near them. Turning around, both girls saw that Tayuya's flute had somehow summoned up three grotesque-looking monsters that were obviously not normal size, but monumental. Playing another note from her flute, one of the monsters swung viciously at the Hyuuga and Uchiha. Both managed to jump out of the way as the hit clearly made a huge crater in the ground. From the corner of her eyes, Katara saw that each note the flute-user used, caused one of the three monsters to attack them. At that moment, Katara knew that they were both in trouble as long as she had her flute. She also knew that it would cause a lot more trouble since the three goons would protect her as well. _

'_Well, hopefully one of us could distract her long enough to get that flute.' Thought the Uchiha as she dodged another blow. The sound nin continued on with her flute-playing for a long period of time; each time both girls would manage to dodge, but as Katara examined her friend's condition, she realized that she was close to exhaustion and running out of chakra. As Katara evaded another blow from one of the monsters, she looked in terror as she saw that Keiko was directly hit on the head and knocked unconscious. The Uchiha quickly rushed over there to provide any medical assistance possible. The Uchiha princess checked over Keiko for any serious injuries but only found that the bump on her head could possibly cause a concussion. Katara was worried and knew that she had to get her friend away from Tayuya and straight to a hospital. Katara was just about to leave carrying her friend until she was suddenly stopped by a huge blow to the gut, which caused her to let go of her friend. She was suddenly pushed into the opposing wall as she felt one of the monster's arm grasp around her body. Katara struggled to get out of its grasp and as she tried her best, she was unsuccessful. From the corner of her eye, she saw that Tayuya was slowly approaching her, flute in hand. The Uchiha heiress knew that the sound nin was just about to finish the job as she held up her flute, ready to blow the final note. _

'_This is it, I guess. I'm sorry.' Thought the Uchiha as she saw Tayuya slowly blow into her flute. _

_From out of nowhere, the beast let go of her as she saw that something had made Tayuya stop from completing the final blow. From closer inspection, Katara slowly made her way away from the monster, and looked at Tayuya's current state. She noticed that only one person she knew would use shadows to keep someone still. _

"_Shikamaru!" the Uchiha said as she saw that it was him holding onto his jutsu. "How did you get here?" questioned the Uchiha as she stood behind him with Keiko in hand. _

"_Itachi told us." The shadow-user said as the Uchiha male stepped out of the darkness along with Sasuke, Naruto, and Kakashi. _

"_Stay behind us, Katara." The copy cat ninja said as he stepped forward. The Uchiha quickly listened to her sensei and took herself and Keiko away from the sound kunoichi. _

"_Hn….seems like you brought from reinforcements." The orange-haired kunoichi said as she was still frozen where she stood. _

"_You're caught, so you might as well start talking now before we have Itachi use his Sharingan against you." Said Shikamaru_

"_I don't think so." Said Tayuya as her chakra levels started to rise as a strange mark started coming from her neck. Everyone felt the newly intense rise in her level of chakra and as Shikamaru struggled to have his hold on her, she slowly broke away from his jutsu and escaped. _

_As she left, everyone heard her say, "I'll be back! And don't worry, I'll bring more company next time!" _

_Shikamaru has used most of his chakra just to hold her back and as he fell down and rested. As hecontinued to sit down in the ground, he slowly turned around to see if everyone was alright. "Is everyone ok?" questioned the Nara. _

"_Katara, you ok? That must've been a lot for you." Said the blonde male. _

"_Yeah, I'm fine Naruto. Thanks. Thank you everyone. But we have to hurry; Keiko, has a concussion and we need to get to the hospital." Answered the Uchiha. _

"_Alright, let's go." Said Itachi as all six made their way towards the Konoha Hospital in the darkness of the night. _

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_

_All six shinobi made their way to the hospital in a short amount of time. Katara was the first to demand that someone look after her friend, until Tsunade showed up. The Uchiha quickly explained the situation and with that, the medic took a look at Keiko and sent her to another room, while the other five had to wait outside. _

_Tsunade quickly left and followed the unconscious Hyuuga as the other medics headed towards another room. Katara was left to sit down and wait in the waiting room with the others, while wondering how trouble always seemed to follow her. _

'_I can't believe this all happened. I hope she'll be alright.' Thought the Uchiha as she sat down and looked towards the ground. _

_Uchiha Katara suddenly felt a presence next to her as that person's hand touched her shoulder. She slowly looked up and saw that in Itachi's eyes, there was a look of concern. From the seat that Sasuke took in the corner with Kakashi, Naruto, and Shikamaru, he could see that they both really cared about each other, but he couldn't figure out how they both couldn't see it. _

"_Are you alright?" questioned the Uchiha. _

"_Yeah…I'm fine. I was just thinking, I was the main cause to all of this. Keiko is hurt because of me." The Uchiha heiress replied as she clutched her head in frustration. _

"_Listen, everything is going to be alright." Itachi said as she tipped her chin up into his eyes. "What happened tonight, is going to continue to happen. But what you need to do is just believe in yourself and become stronger. You already are. They're going to be after you soon and we need to think of another plan." _

"_So what are we going to do now?" questioned Katara. _

"_All we can do now is hope for the best. We worked it out and it was decided that I would be with you at all times." The Uchiha answered as he embraced her and tried to comfort her. _

"_Don't worry, Kay, we'll be able to make it through this. I did promise you I would be with you every step of the way!" Naruto said as he went up to the two Uchihas. _

_Katara giggled at how Naruto could just make her feel so cheerful and slowly got up and gave him a hug. "Of course! Thanks!" _

_While Katara was busy talking to her best friend, Itachi was slowly watching at how her face and emotions managed to change into a cheerful mood and he couldn't help but feel happy on the inside as well. _

"_You know, she is becoming stronger everyday. She has what it takes." Said Kakashi as he sat down next to the Uchiha. _

"_What do you want, Kakashi?" asked Itachi. _

"_I just wanted to make sure you were fine. You never fell for anyone this hard." Replied the Jounin. _

"_Hn…" the Uchiha replied. _

_Out of the blue, Katara suddenly popped out in front of the two older men and said, "Tsunade said that Keiko would be fine! Isn't that great! Itachi, come on, let's go check up on her!" the Uchiha heiress exclaimed as she took hold of the Uchiha male and dragged him into the next room. But the only reason why he was being dragged was because he was stunned and staring at her as she held the smile that he always loved from her. _

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**I hope you liked this chapter. I don't think it came the way I expected it to be, but I think I'm fine with it. But I am definitely looking forward to write up the next chapter! **

**Look out for the next chapter and I promise you, that it will be longer than this. **

**Until then, please please please review! Your reviews help motivate me to continued to write and update faster than I usually do. **

**-Katara**


	10. Chapter Nine: Colliding Past and Present

**Well, hopefully the wait for this chapter wasn't too long! I hope everyone enjoys reading it! And keep up with the reviews! Reviews truly do encourage me to get chapters done more quickly and to update at a faster rate. SO please review at the end, and I truly do take your opinions to heart. **

**Without denying you anymore, here's the new chapter: **

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Chapter 9: The Colliding Past and Present

_A few days later, after the Uchiha's encounter with one of the Sound Five, she was currently sitting outside on her balcony as she looked out to the village. As she watched everyone busily work and get ready for the new day with her navy orbs, she pulled her legs towards her chest and continued to watch. After experiencing so many moments in her life, she began to think over that she is and never was a normal girl. And as she accepted that, she quickly turned towards the green covered book on her balcony table. _

_As she flipped through the pages again, making sure that she hadn't missed anything, she slowly closed the novel and took it with her inside her apartment. The Uchiha heiress silently shut the door and as she had the book in hand, she quickly grabbed and put on a thin, red jacket over her white top and black capris outfit. Katara quickly ran out of her doorway and as she became more anxious to see the Hokage after his return from the small town, she met up with her crimson-eyed Guardian as he stood just outside her door. He was currently in a laid back position as his back was leaning on a post with arms crossed, and eyes closed. As Katara slowly approached his form, his onyx eyes opened to meet up with her navy orbs. _

_"Ohayo Itachi-kun!" the Uchiha female said as she walked side by side with him. The older Uchiha male turned towards her and addressed her presence with a nod._

_The walk towards the Hokage Tower was silent as both Uchihas made their way to it. Although it would seem strange to other people at how non-social the Uchiha prodigy would be, Katara felt comfortable with the silence since she seemed to be the one that understood why Itachi always had his guard up. Along with that, she knew that he wasn't much of a talker, which weirdly enough, seemed to be something that the Uchiha heiress liked. _

_As they walked up the steps, Katara hugged the green book closer to her body, as her body began to shiver from the slight breeze of winter. The weather was not too horrible at the moment; it was only the beginning of the cold season and snow had barely begun to fall from the sky. From a close distance, Itachi could see how cold she was getting and as they made it up the full flight of steps, he could tell that she was relieved to be in the warm hallway as she gave a huge sigh once she entered. _

_Both Uchihas quickly made their way towards the Hokage's office and as Katara turned the doorknob, they both silently entered to see the Third doing paperwork. As he looked up from the piles of papers on his desk, he meet up with both Uchihas standing before him. _

_"Can I help you two?" questioned the Third as he continued on with his work. _

_Uchiha Katara slowly stepped forward and with a hint of hesitation, she said, "Hokage-sama, I just wanted to know if there was anything else missing from this book," while she also held out the green, thick novel in front of her. _

_"As I told Itachi, all the information you need, is in there." The hokage replied as he continued with his work. _

_The Uchiha male also stepped forward, standing beside Katara, and said, "Lord Hokage, we've looked through the whole book, and about half is empty."_

_With that said, Asuma Sarutobi stopped writing with his pen, and turned to look upon the faces of both Uchihas. "I'm sure you've learned something from the book." _

_"Of course, but not much. There should be more in here; at least that's what my gut is telling me." Said Katara. _

_"Well go with that instinct. I'm sure you will be able to figure out what's missing from the puzzle. You see, sometimes you may see things harder than it seems, but truthfully, they are easier than you make them out to be. That book for instance, holds the most valuable information that you need on your own path, and in order to learn all you need to know, you need to open up your eyes to new horizons. When the sun sets upon the horizon and there are glimpses of colorful lights, that is when you will find your answer." Explained the hokage. _

_But as soon as the Third finished with his explanation, the Uchiha heiress gave him a confused look with a a raised brow. She then stared at him and asked, "What does that all mean?" _

_With a chuckle, the Third replied with, "You'll soon find out, Katara. That I'm sure of. I believe in you and I know someone as bright as you is the only one capable for this job. Don't give up. Never give up and keep believing in yourself." The Third hokage ended the conversation with a serene, happy smile. He held onto Katara's shoulder and as he looked direclt in her eyes, the Uchiha princess saw how much he truly believed in her abilities. Just as he returned back to his seats, the Third was about to get back to work, but that was until a huge blast came from a few miles away from the tower. _

_The hokage quickly turned towards the area of the explosion and quickly saw several more similar explosions occur throughout the village. With a look of panic in his eyes, the hokage turned towards both Uchihas and hastily said, "Itachi, get her out of here. Now!" And with that said, the Uchiha heiress stood frozen with the book in hand as she stared back at the occurring explosions; looking back and forth between the hokage and Itachi with a worried look, Katara just couldn't get her body to move. But as her guardian saw that she was still in her place, Itachi quickly grabbed her arm and pulled her towards him as they hastily left the tower. _

_But as the Uchiha heiress came back to her senses, she quickly yelled back to the hokage, and yelled, "Wait! Lord Hokage!" But as she was being pulled farther and farther away, her body met up with the cold of winter as both Uchihas made their way out of the tower. On the outside, everyone in the village was being quickly directed towards the safety area, while other shinobi went to check out what was going on. More and more explosions were being set off around the whole village and without even stopping to see what was going on, the Uchiha and the Uchiha heiress continued on their way away from everything. _

_As Itachi continued to lead Katara away from the tower, they quickly made their way to a safe area, behind a corner and stopped to see what was going on. As the male Uchiha turned away from his female counterpart, he managed to see their current situation. From the corner of his eyes, Itachi saw that the village was under an invasion. And with the luck they had at the moment, the Uchiha male knew that the Hidden Leaf Village was at a disadvantage considering how much military power they had at the moment. Coming back fro his thoughts, Itachi quickly turned towards Katara to address her about the current situtation, but just as he was about to tell her what was going on, she got his attention and asked, "Itachi, what's going on? Where are the explosions coming from?" _

_With a worried look in her eyes, Itachi quickly embraced her to calm her down and answered, "They're here. They're after you. We have to leave right now." _

_Immediately leaving his embrace, the Uchiha heiress exclaimed, "WHAT?! We can't…….we can't just abandon everyone here!" Katara had said as she stood in front of the Uchiha and then turned away from him. Just as the Uchiha male saw that Katara was about to leave the area, he quickly took hold of her hand. _

_The Uchiha quickly turned her around so that she would face him and held her still in an embrace. With another try at calming her down, the Uchiha male said, "Katara, we have no choice. We need to leave now. There's no other choice. He'll stop at nothing to get you. But I promise you, with my life, I will do whatever it takes to protect you. Now let's go," the Uchiha said as he grabbed onto her arm. But Itachi soon realized that Katara was standing still on the same spot and would not move. Seeing that the enemy was coming closer, the Uchiha had no other choice but to lift the heiress bridal-style and with that he swiftly leapt from building to building as more fire and explosions occurred. _

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_

_"Alright, where is she?!" an angered Sound shinobi said as he and his female comrade cornered the three leaf shinobi. _

_"I'm not obligated to answer." Coolly said Sasuke as he took out his Katana out from its sheath. _

_"That's right! If you want to get to her, you're going to have to go through us!" exclaimed Naruto as he took out a kunai. _

_"Right!" agreed Sakura as she too took out a kunai. _

_"If you three really want to make this harder for you guys, then fine. It only makes this more fun." Tayuya replied with a smirk. _

_"I agree, Tayuya. I say we give them a hard time." Replied her male comrade that seemed to have six arms, also known as Kidomaru. _

_The kunoichi quickly took out her flute as her comrade began to form some strange material that seemed to look like a web in his hands. As he began to form weapons from the unknown material, his female comrade quickly called upon her three summonings to attack the three leaf nin. As all three headed their way, Team 7 quickly managed to damage the one with the club. As all three jumped into different directions, one of the summonings took hold of the pink medic's leg and threw her towards the ground. _

_"Sakura!" yelled Naruto as he jumped to her side, along with Sasuke. _

_As all three members of the team were together, all three monsters came upon them, and managed to hit Naruto in the gut as he stood in front of his female teammate to protect her. As his back collided with one of the building walls, the Uchiha, managed to take Sakura out of the way as a hit almost collided with them. As he was about to head for one of the summonings, a dangerous, fast arrow skidded by him and caused a small tear on his shirt. As Sasuke turned around, he saw that the spider-like-man was also partaking into the fight. Once the Uchiha saw his teammate come out from the rubble, and as Sakura came to join up with them in a corner, hidden from their enemies, he quickly turned towards both his teammate and said, "Naruto, Sakura, all three of us need to work together. That's the only way that's going to work. It seems that she manages to control them by playing different notes, while that other guy uses some sort of web-like substance to form weapons." Sasuke informed as he stared back to see what the two members of the Sound Five were up to. _

_"So we just need to get that flute away from her. But that other guy, he's another case we have to deal with." Stated Sakura as she adjusted the gloves on her hands. _

_"So how are we supposed to do that?" questioned the blonde as he was trying very hard to think of a way out of their situation. _

_"I've got an idea, but it's pretty risky. Just follow my instructions and I'm sure we'll get out of this." The Uchiha said as he smirked with confidence and explained his plan. _

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_

_Both the red-haired Sound Nin along with her comrade were getting impatient as they searched the area for their three opponents. As Tayuya played more notes for her three goons to continue to search the area, Kidomaru did the same as he sent out some of his spiders to try to find them. _

_As soon as one of the Sound kunoichi's goons sensed one of the leaf nin, Tayuya was surprised to see the unpredictable blonde fall from above and land a powerhouse kick on the goon with the club. _

_The collision from the blow left dust to disperse and as it slowly disappeared, their pink-haired teammate came out with a chakra enhanced fist aimed for the red head. _

_As the spider-like man saw the incoming attack on his teammate, he quickly sent an array of sharp arrows aimed at her. _

_The arrows were about to make impact until a multiple number of blonde clones came to take the blow for her. Sakura continued to speed up and make her way towards the kunoichi and just as she was about to come into contact, she had hit one of Tayuya's monsters right in the gut, blowing it straight away. _

_Its body made contact harshly with a detoriated building as the structure slowly crumbled upon it. Seeing that Tayuya only had one summoning left, she quickly blew into her flute in order to get it to attack the pink-haired kunoichi. _

_Sakura narrowly avoided the blow as the hit missed and caused a huge crater onto the ground. The emerald-eyed girl quickly joined up with her blonde teammate, both with their backs to each other as they got ready to face off against their two opponents. _

_As both sound nin narrowed in on their opponent, the red head's body slowly fell to the ground, limp and lifeless, from a cut to the throat. _

_As her teammate stared in shock what had just happened, Naruto gave the Uchiha a smirk and said, "It's about time, Sasuke. I thought you were just going to leave all of this to us." _

_"Don't get cocky, Naruto. I wouldn't want you to be the only one to have fun." The Uchiha replied back with a smirk. _

_"What? Th-that's impossible!......... You brats! I'll show you who you're messing with." Exclaimed the sound nin as he made more weapons and began rapidly throwing them at all three leaf nin. _

_All Team 7 members managed to jump out of the way from the projectiles and as they all quickly disappeared, Kidomaru was a bit worried about where is opponents were at the moment. As he searched everywhere for any sight of one of the three, the spider-like man felt a dangerous presence behind him. As he slowly turned around, he met up with crimson Sharingan eyes, and as he felt a kick come in contact with his gut, the attack sent him towards the ground. _

_"Sakura your turn." Said the Uchiha as he moved out of the way. _

_As that was said, Kidomaru saw the pink-haired kunoichi nearing him with a chakra enhanced fist. As the sound nin's body was about to reach the ground, Sakura quickly leaped up and connected her fist to his jaw, causing his body to move towards the left.. _

_"Naruto! It's your turn now!" yelled the leaf kunoichi as she too moved out of the way. _

_The sound nin's body was moving at a fast rate towards the left after being hit with such a strong punch. As he could do nothing to stop his body, he slowly turned around to see the blonde running towards him with a chakra-like sphere. As his body made contact with the raw amount of powerful chakra, his body was being torn to shreds by the attack. As Naruto's advance ended, Kidomaru's body smashed into the opposing wall and fell down to the ground. _

_All three members of Team 7 stood in front of the body and as Sasuke knelt down to check for a pulse, he quickly got up and stated, "He's dead." As he put his sword back in it's sheath. _

_"So what now?" questioned his pink-haired teammate. _

_"Well, we should go help the others." Said the Uchiha as he looked at both his teammates. _

_"Well, what are we waiting for?! Let's go!" Naruto said as he pumped his fist in the air and was about to head off until he was stopped by a familiar voice. _

_"Hold on, where do you think you three are going?" questioned their sensei as he appeared out of nowhere. _

_"Sensei…..we were just going to check up on the others." Explained Sakura as she faced the silver-haird jounin. _

_"There's no need for that. The hokage has things taken care of. We need to meet up with Itachi and Katara at the village gates. Let's go." Stated Kakashi and with that he and Team 7 left the area. _

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_As the older Uchiha swiftly carried the heiress through the village, Katara's navy orbs met up with disaster. As she was being carried away, she tightly clutched onto Itachi's neck from her own fear. She saw how her home was slowly getting ruined before her eyes and she noticed how the fires were getting bigger. From the corner of her eyes, she saw several dead bodies of leaf shinobi who had given their life up to protect the village. As she looked back, she couldn't help but think that the whole entire situation was her fault and with that thought, she felt a pang of guilt hit her directly. _

_From a heavy, thick smoke, she could see from a distance the hokage fighting a pale, black-haired man. The whole scene was relfected in her navy orbs and as the strange man turned towards her direction, she could see his eyes glare into hers. This horrid feeling quickly sent a shiver down her spine while she was in Itachi's arms. But as she continued to look back at the battle, she thought: Good luck, Hokage-sama, as she turned her head away to rest on the Uchiha's chest and soak his shirt with her tears. _

_As Itachi felt his shirt become wet, he quickly looked down and as his legs carried him closer and closer towards the gates, he stared at the female in his arms and saw the sad expression held on her face. He couldn't help but show a hint of concern, but focusing at the task at hand, he quickly made it towards the gates without any trouble. _

_Turning on his Sharingan, Itachi scanned the area and found the silver-haired jounin along with his team waiting just a few feet from them. He quickly pushed more chakra into his feet and in less than five seconds, he met up with them, with the Uchiha heiress in his arms. Stopping in front of the group, he quickly looked down again to check on the current status of the Uchiha and saw that she had cried herself to sleep as there was a clear indication of tears on her tear-stained face. _

_The older Uchiha quickly looked towards everyone and with a nod from his brother, all of them jumped into action and sprinted towards the north as the winter snow covered their tracks. _

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_The night had overcome and hidden everything in darkness. As Kakashi quietly watched outside the window, the rest of team 7 were gathered around a fireplace, getting warm. As they had just arrived hours ago to their hideout in the Land of Snow, they were warming themselves up from the freezing journey. _

_On the other hand, Itachi had been in another room, staring at the flames of the fire. In the room, there was a bed, where lay Katara as she had not woken up yet from the journey. As the older Uchiha continued to watch the flames, he quickly poured himself some tea as he turned to look back at the heiress. _

_From what he saw, Itachi noticed the distressed look on her face as her eyebrows scrunched up in her sleep. As she continue to move about in her slumber, Itachi silently moved his chair right next to the bed to keep her company. _

_As Katara continued to move more in her sleep, she slowly opened her navy orbs to meet up with onyx ones. She slowly looked up at Itachi's face with saddened eyes and couldn't hide how she felt as she sat up. Once she was in a sitting position in the bed, Katara decided not to look directly into the older Uchiha's eyes, but instead just look down at her own hands. _

_Itachi could tell that she was in an unstable state and as he watched her hug her knees, he knew that she was worried as she ignored him and just stared straight ahead of her. _

_Breaking the silence, the Uchiha quickly held out a cup of tea and said, "Katara, you should drink this. You need to keep up your strength." But as the Uchiha heiress stared at the cup held up in front of her, she quickly embraced her guardian, knocking the cup of tea from his grasp, spilling the contents onto the ground. It felt as if she was holding onto him for dear life and as he felt some tears fall from her eyes, he too embraced her. At the moment, he didn't know what to say or what to do, he just hugged her back as she continued with her tears. _

_Katara stopped within a few moments and opened her eyes to see that from the doorway, were her friends along with her sensei. As she cleaned up her composure, she let go of her grasp on Itachi and sat up as all four shinobi entered the small room. _

_"Katara, you're awake!" exclaimed Naruto as he gave her one of his famous smiles. _

_"Yeah…" sadly replied the Uchiha as she hugged her knees again. _

_Both Naruto and Sakura took a seat on the bed and allowed the Uchiha to sit between the two, while Kakashi and Sasuke decided to stand up. As everyone gave their attention to the silver-haired jounin, he broke the silence with, "We've received news from what happened in the village. Orochimaru managed to take over, and imprisoned most of the shinobi…..and also, news of the Third's death has spread as well." _

_Throughout the whole conversation, Katara only looked towards the floor as more sadness overcame her. As she broke from her trance, she quickly burst into another fit of tears as she realized that her vision had happened. _

_As she continued to break down even more, she loudly said, "I-I-I can't do this anymore!" as she clutched her head in frustration and fell to the ground on her knees. "I just can't!" _

_The pink-haired kunochi quickly bent down to her friend's level and allowed Katara to embrace her as she continued to cry. She felt and saw how much pain her friend was in and was currently trying to calm her down. Everyone else in the room was also shocked by her outburst and as Kakashi looked at the Uchiha closely, he was about to say something, until he was interrupted. _

_Katara's best friend slowly knelt down to her eye level as well and as he removed her grasp from Sakura's arms and made her look directly in his blue orbs as he said, "You can't run away from your past, Katara. All you can do now is to believe in yourself. If you don't believe in yourself, how can we believe in you? I've believed in you from the start, and I still do! Don't give up now! You didn't give up on me, so I'm not going to either! "_

_"I-I-I can't, Naruto, I just can't." the Uchiha heiress admitted in defeat as she stopped her tears. After the rant the blonde had just gone on, and looked at his friend with a look of sadness. Sakura, Kakashi, and Naruto turned back to look at the Uchiha with a look of concern and as Katara watched everyone leave the room, she saw that she was alone, except for Itachi. _

_The male Uchiha slowly bent down to her eye level and made her navy orbs look directly into them as he spoke. "Katara, you just can't give up… many people are counting on you and out of everyone else, I believe you are the one that can do this. So many people have sacrificed their own lives for your sake and you cannot let their deaths be in vain." _

_Katara slowly turned towards her guardian and looked up into his truthful eyes. As she continued to stare at his onyx eyes, she once again, embraced him as she shakingly shivered in fright. The Uchiha comforted her as he rubbed her back, which made her calm down and stop shaking. _

_As Katara continued to stay in the position she was in, Itachi's eyes quickly turned towards the door as the silver-haired jounin came in. _

_Nodding to show that he had his attention, Kakashi entered the room and reported, "I think some of your recruits are here, Itachi," as he stepped aside for the Uchiha to see for himself. _

_The Uchiha heiress slowly looked up and turned around and saw that from their headbands, these shinobi were from all over. As she turned towards Itachi and looked towards the new comers, she saw a blonde-haired male with hair in a pony-tail say, "We're ready to help, un." _

_Turning her attention back to Itachi, she heard him say, "It's about time, Deidara. After all, we're going to need all the help we can get." As he ended his statement with the famous Uchiha smirk. _

_Katara turned to see everyone come in and saw many unfamiliar faces: a blue shark, a blonde haired male, a red head that seemed to like puppets, and orange-haired man with strange purple eyes with spirals, a female with blue hair along with an origami flower in her hair, a tan-skinned female from the Hiden Sand with four pig tails, another Sand shinobi with some sort of paint on his face, and this Sand shinobi with crimson blood hair, carrying a gourd on his back. _

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_**A week later:** _

_Katara was looking outside her window, seeing more snow fall from the heavens above. For only a week's time, she's been keeping to herself and just looking out of the window everyday. She would refuse to eat anything given to her, and due to the lack of nutrition, she looked as pale as ever. Everyone was worried about her condition, even all the new comers who had come a week ago had become attached to her. Even Itachi couldn't cheer her up as each day he would try to get her out of bed and smile. Everyone tried to pitch in to see Katara happy again, but with each try, the Uchiha just slowly ignored them and cast them aside. _

_The rebel group had spent about a week in their current hideout and after having made several introductions, the Uchiha was happy to meet new people. But as Katara turned to look at the green book on her nightstand, she was once again reminded of the horrible day and the hokage's death. _

_'I'm sorry, Hokage-sama….b-but you were wrong to believe in me. I can't do this…..everyone including you, have lost their lives because of me, and I can't stand to live knowing that. I'm worthless…' thought Katara as she looked directly at the green covered book and slowly, a tear began to make its way down her face. _

_As the Uchiha remained sitting up on her bed, she wiped away the single tear while still looking out of the window. She quickly turned her head towards the doorway as she heard the door knob turn and saw her pink-haired friend enter into the room. _

_"Umm….Katara?" asked the Haruno as she stood in the doorway, waiting for her friend's response. _

_"Yes, Sakura?" the Uchiha answered back with a question as she gave her friend her full attention. The leaf kunoichi quickly came fully into the room and quietly took a seat at the edge of the bed. _

_As Sakura's emerald eyes stared directly down at the floor, she had her voice directed towards Katara. "I know that you've been through a lot, Katara, and I feel that I know what you're going through. But it doesn't mean you should give up." _

_The Uchiha heiress turned her head to meet her navy orbs with emerald ones and responded back with, "Sakura, you can't possibly understand what I'm going through…when people put too many expectations on you, you feel pressured not to let them down… But I did, I let down everyone I know." And with that said, the Uchiha turned towards the window once again. _

_"You're wrong, Katara. You've never let anyone down." Sakura said as she took hold of the Uchiha's shoulders and made Katara look her in the eye. "And if you just give up now, you are letting everyone down. We all believe in you! Why can't you get that through your thick skull?" yelled the pink-haired female as she took hold of the Uchiha by her top's collar. _

_Katara's navy orbs sadly looked into her friend's eyes and said, "Because… there's no hope left. I don't have what it takes, Sakura. Just give it up… I can't do anything right. Go tell the others to find a new chosen one." And as Katara finished up with her response, Sakura was too frozen up to do anything but surpringly stare at her with her emerald eyes. At that moment, Katara quickly pried Sakura's grip from her shirt and left from the bed. As she got up, she quickly took a thick, winter coat from a chair, put it on and swiftly made her way towards the window sill. As she opened the door, Katara's navy orbs turned back to see Sakura break from her trance and see the Uchiha heiress make her leave from the hideout. _

_As her face made contact with the frigid cold, Katara ran as fast as she could possible away from the base. Newly made tears were slowly falling from her face as she ran as quickly as possible wherever her feet would choose to take her. _

_She quickened her speed even more as she sent chakra to her feet. As she continued running to whoever knows where, she turned her head to look back and saw that she was quite far away from the hideout. Then deciding that she had managed to go far enough, she slackened her paste and slowly walked in comfort as she suddenly realize the cold directly hit her. She swiftly pulled her jacket closer to her body and hugged her arms around herself to keep herself warm. But as she continued to walk on, she became more cold. As she realized to see that it was nighttime, she squinted her eyes to see any shelter around the area. As she kept on moving, she accidently bumped into a male's chest as the collision caused her to fall down. _

_Katara quickly dusted the snow from her jacket and turned her head to looked up. She couldn't tell who it was as the blizzard had made it hard to see. But as she took a closer look, she recognized the facial structure and eyes of her dear friend. _

_"K-katara? What are you doing out here?! Come on, I'll take you back." The Takahashi said as he took hold of the Uchiha's arm and managed to get her up on her feet. As Katara realized what was about to happen, she quickly took her arm out of Koji's grasp and ran as fast as her legs would take her. _

_As she added more chakra into her feet, she could hear Koji's voice die down as he was screaming for her to come back. As she continued running, she felt no pain or cold from the harsh wind of the blizzard and as she was blinded by tears, she failed to see a branch, and managed to trip over it. _

_Her numb body fell to the ground as it continued to roll down the hill until her body stopped on its own. Katara was lying face down, on the ground as she looked at her fingers, that were slowly turning blue and becoming numb due to a lack of circulation from the cold. _

_As she continued to look at her hands, she couldn't feel anything as she moved her fingers. 'This is it, I guess… I never wanted this. I only wanted a normal life.' Katara thought as she let the cold take over her. _

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**Did I leave you at a cliffhanger? My apologies for that, but you'll see what happens next, hopefully soon. But who knows....I just really would enjoy more reviews, so....**

**Please, please, please, remember to review! It would mean a lot of me! Critcism is welcomed as well! Thanks! **

**Until next time, **

**-katara :) **


	11. Chapter Ten: With Great Power

**Well, hopefully I didn't keep you all in too much suspense since the last time I updated this story! I just hope to get more feedback and at the moment, I haven't been able to **

**update as much as I had hoped to do so, since with school and everything. But please enjoy this chapter, and I'll try my best to update again as soon as possible. **

**Thanks to everyne who has reviewed this story so far, especially Venza, who has encouraged me to continue on with this story! Thank you so much!**

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Chapter 10: With Power Comes Responsibility

_As navy eyes opened to be met up with the bright light of an unfamiliar room, the Uchiha's eyes blurred as she slowly got accustomed to the lighting. Slowly getting up from a strange bed, she looked down to realize that she was in a totally different attire. An oversized shirt served to cover up her body and as she tried to sit up, her head panged her with pain. _

_Her eyes quickly shut closed and as Katara clutched onto her head in pain, she swiflt laid down and put her head on the soft pillow. As the Uchiha rested her hurt head on the bed, she slowly opened her eyes and meet up with the bright light again. She struggled to move her body on its side as she felt that her heart was beating in her head, but as she was able to accomplish her goal, she slowly opened her navy orbs to meet up with several people in the room. (Sakura, Naruto, Kakashi, Itachi, Sasuke). _

_Her eyes were wide as she saw all of them in the room. She was shocked to see them there as she believed she was already far away from them. As her senses hit her again, she looked towards the left of the room and saw there more people, Koji, Neji, and Shikamaru. _

_All eight shinobi had waited patiently for the Uchiha heiress to awaken, ever since she was brought back unconsciously by Koji. As they all saw that she was awake, all eight slowly approached the bed and stood in front of her. _

_Seeing them all approach her, Katara quickly shut her eyes and pretended to be asleep, but as Hatake Kakashi's voice broke through, he forced her to stop pretending when he said, "Katara, we all know you're already awake. We just want to talk." _

_From the tone of the jounin's voice, Katara knew that he was being serious, and as a result, she slowly opened her eyes and sat up in bed. _

_As soon as the silver-haired male knew he had gotten her attention, he continued what he was going to say. "Katara, out of everything you've done, how could you completely give up…do you know how many people are counting on you?" Kakashi said as he watched Katara take his words in, so he continued again. "You're just going to quit, is that it? Then everything the hokage did for you was for nothing?!" exclaimed the jounin as Katara flinched a bit as his tone became louder. _

_The Uchiha heiress was about to say something back, until she was stopped by one of her friends. As Takahashi Koji stepped forward, Katara couldn't help but look away from his disappointed gaze as she stared back at her. Out of all the people she never wanted to let down, one of them was Koji. After all she had been through, he was someone that was always there for her and helped her become more confident, therefore, at the moment, she couldn't help but feel disappointed in herself as well. _

_Katara stayed silent as her friend stepped forward and said, "Kay, I'm not going to yell at you like sensei just did now, but do you realize how much trouble you put yourself through?" the Takhashi said as he sat on her bed, close to her and continued. "You endangered your life out there. And it's not because you're expected to save your kingdom that we care, we all care about you and we always did, even before this whole ordeal. And we are all going to stand by your side." _

_The Uchiha heiress stayed silent for a few moments, until she looked back at her friend and said, "Koji, how can I do this, if I don't even believe in myself? I don't want anyone to die for my sake." She said as she looked around the room at everyone with concerned eyes. "I-I'm afraid of losing any one of you guys. I can't stand there and just watch all of you risk your lives for me, not while I'm still alive, I'm willing to put my life on the line." _

_The Uchiha heiress continued to look at all her friends as she finished with her conversation. And as she kept looking at them, her hyperactive, blonde best friend stepped forward to say, "Kay, if that's all you're worried about, everything will be fine. I assure you that we're all strong enough to handle this. And when this is all over, we'll all still be here, standing right by your side." _

_The Uchiha heiress looked up into Naruto's blue eyes and saw that he meant what he said, and as she turned to see his goofy grin, she couldn't help but smile herself. "Arigatou, Naruto-kun." _

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_After an hour of being able to cheer Katara up, she felt better and as she quickly got out of bed, everyone followed her out in order to have some dinner. As everyone met up at the huge dinner table, they all enjoyed each other's company as they dug in and had a feast. _

_In fact, from the corner of her eyes, she could see Naruto happily eat ramen and as Katara turned back towards her food, she was glad to be around everyone and actually be social. _

_As Katara dug into more rice and pork, she had turned towards Itachi and felt his gaze on her. Her eyes met up with his and as navy met onyx, Itachi broke the silence by saying, "I'm glad you're back, Katara." _

_The Uchiha heiress smiled back at her companion and said, "It's great to be back, Itachi. Thanks so much for everything. You've helped me the most through this whole experience. And I thank you for that." She finished up as she gave him a hug to show her own gratitude. _

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_After dinner, everyone gathered around the large living room, to just hangout together around the fireplace and to enjoy eachother's company. Everyone saw the new determination in Katara's eyes along with her newfound happiness and they were assured that she was ready to know what was going on. As she sat down on the couch next to Deidara, she gave him a gentle smile and turned her attention to the three new comers and asked, "What are you guys doing here? How did you even get here?" _

_The Hyuuga slowly looked at her with his white eyes and simply replied, "We're here to assist in whatever is necessary." _

'_It's always like Neji to give such a straight answer.' Thought Katara as she just nodded her head and waited for further details from Shikamaru and Koji. _

_As she expected, the shadow user began the conversation again, except with more details. "Well, after the invasion from Orochimaru's troops, most of us stayed back to see the damage. We saw that he managed to conquer the village and well, Koji, Neji, and I saw many of the shinobi become imprisoned. From there, we knew we had to think of another plan to free anyone that was caught, so we decided to meet up with you guys." _

"_So everyone is captured?" questioned Sakura as she turned towards the three shinobi. _

"_Yeah….everyone that we know. Lee, Tenten, Keiko, you name it. Other than that, I know that Jiraiya and Tsunade are being held up in a highly guarded area." Answered the Takahashi. _

"_Kakashi, Master Jiraiya also wanted us to give you a letter before he was capture. He said it was urgent." The Hyuuga said as he took an envelop from his pocket to hand to the copy cat nin. _

_Kakashi quickly opened the letter up and swiftly skimmed through it. After a few more seconds, he finished reading the letter and was about to tell the group what was in it. _

"_Looks like Orochimaru is going after you, Katara. And even more bad news, he's already taken over Lightning Country, he's headed for Wind Country now." Informed Kakashi as he addressed everyone in the group. _

"_This is bad….at this rate if we can't stop him, he's going to be able to take over the whole world." Stated Sasuke. _

"_Way to be positive…." Said Naruto as he turned towards his teammate. _

"_He's only being realistic, Naruto." Replied the Hyuuga._

"_He's already got a huge area of land conquered, especially from his wins in Fire Country. At the moment, he seems to be heading for the largest land masses." Explained Itachi as he thgouth the whole process through his head. _

"_So what are we supposed to do now, un?" asked the blonde artist as he stared up to look at anyone for an answer. _

_But as everyone continued with talking, Katara's eyes suddenly glowed a bright white color, which indicated to everyone in the room that she was entering into a vision. Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked at her in interest. _

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_**The Uchiha heiress scanned the area around her as she watched some more snow fall down from the sky. As she was at peace with everything and was glad that her vision wasn't going to be bad, she was terribly wrong. She suddenly saw several stains of red in the snow, indicating blood and a sign of a fight. As the Uchiha turned to look towards the familiar cabin of their hideout, she could not recognize it as she saw it slowly burn down. Without thinking she saw herself quickly rush to the cabin and stand in front of it as she weeped with so many tears. As she saw herself try to enter into the cabin, the Uchiha covered her face and eyes with her own arms as the whole place exploded in front of her, causing her body to collide into a tree. **_

_**As she recovered from the blow, she looked up to see that she was alone and saw herself scream several names out at the top of her lungs as tears began to fall, "Koji! Naruto! Kakashi-sensei!" **_

_**As Katara watched herself quickly rush back to the area of the destroyed base, she only saw ash as there was nothing left. Her own form fell down onto her knees and slammed her fists to the ground and as she cried, the real Katara quickly gasped as she saw that from behind her vision self, was Orochimaru and his men. **_

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"_Katara, what did you see?"asked Kakashi as everyone else tuned in to what she was about to say. _

"_He and his men are coming here. They somehow managed to find us." Stated the Uchiha as she answered his question. _

"_So what should be do now, un?" asked the blonde artist. _

"_We need to spilt up." Answered Pein as looked at the blonde with his purple eyes. _

"_What good would that do?" questioned Naruto as he showed his confusion on his face. _

"_Geez, Naruto, do we have to explain everything to you? I thought you would get it by now." Complained Shikamaru as he put his hands behind his head and looked at him with an annoyed expression. _

"_Oh yeah, Shikamaru….." Naruto started until he was interrupted by Katara. _

"_Naruto, I'm sure Shikamaru didn't mean it. But getting back to the idea. I think it's great." _

_Naruto slowly turned towards his friend and said, "Huh? How is it a great idea? Isn't splitting up a bad idea?" asked the blue-eyed male. _

_The Uchiha turned to face the blonde and explained, "Well, usually splitting up is bad, but in this case, it's probably necessary. Think of it this way, Naruto, there's too many of us in one place. If one of Orochimaru's minions find one of us, they find all of us. That way by dividing ourselves, we can complete two goals at a time, therefore killing two birds with one stone." _

"_Precisely…" stated Kakashi as he smiled behind his mask. _

"_So what we need to do is to divide ourselves based on our strengths and weaknesses as a group." Stated Temari as she turned to see everyone agree with her statement. _

"_Alright then, I guess I'll spilt everyone up." Said Kakashi as he looked at everyone and saw that they all were paying attention. _

_The silver-haired jouin then continued with, "The first group will be Katara, Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, Gaara, Shikarmaru, Koji, Konan, and myself. The second group will be Itachi, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Neji, Temari, and Kankorou. As for now, we'll talk about the plan in detail tomorrow, but we have two different groups made to perform different tasks." _

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**Well, that's it for now, but the next chapter, I do have some KataraXItachi moments, so hopefully you guys will look forward to that! **

**Remember to review! :) **

**-Arigatou! **


	12. Chapter Eleven: Realization

**I wish everyone is having a great winter break! So as a holiday gift to everyone, I hope yuo guys enjoy this chapter. I'm nervously awaiting what you guys think of it! I recently just got over a writer's block, so hopefully this is up to everyone's expectations. **

**Once again, I'd like to thank Hiedrkdragon3 for favoriting this story and Venza for helping me with progressing through this story with the reviews! :) **

**Without a delay, enjoy!**

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Chapter 11: Realization

_The snow was falling down gracefully as a kunoichi watched it from the window of her room. Despite everything that was going on, the Uchiha heiress was trying to clear her thoughts. Looking back at her reflection, she saw that she looked a bit more pale than she usually did, but as she tried to not show any worry on her face, she lifted her body up from the couch and continued towards the training grounds of the base. After all they've been through, Katara felt that it was necessary to relax; every day after the meeting, she trained every chance she got. _

_The heiress was currently dressed up in a gray tank top and black ninja pants to match as she made her way towards the grounds. As she entered, she noticed that she was alone; but that didn't matter to her, Katara just wanted to find some peace and quiet in the hectic situation. Although she felt a bit tired, she shoved if off and decided that it was just as result from training every day. With that worry out of her mind, the Uchiha stretched her legs and arms before actually starting her training. After a few moments, the Uchiha quickly began to practice her punches and kicks against a wooden pole; the whole routine was a continuous pattern, but as the heiress began to feel fatigued, she quickly stopped and sat down for a break. With a bottle of water in her hand, Katara slowly took a seat down on the ground and took slow, deep, and even breaths. _

_As the Uchiha sat there for a few more moments, she slowly felt herself fall towards he ground. Realizing that she had overexhausted herself, Katara knew that she needed medical attention right away. As she lyed there on her side, her eyes slowly began to close as she heard a hyperactive blonde's voice calling for her. _

_

* * *

_

_Slowly coming out and returning to her blacked out state, Katara still had her eyes closed as she tried to stop the room from spinning. Feeling as though her head was throbbing, she tried to shake off all the noise she was hearing outside of the room: _

"_Sakura, so what's wrong with her?" questioned Naruto as he turned towards his pink-haired teammate. _

"_I have no idea….it's strange. I mean when I checked her over, I didn't find anything wrong. I've done all the tests, but none show anything wrong with her. It could possibly be due to exhaustion, but other than that, I haven't seen any alarming symptoms." Replied the kunoichi. _

_**Flashback: **_

**"_Katara!" screamed the blonde as he lifted her up to see if she was fine. Naruto had just been on his way towards the training grounds and as he was thankful that he had come in time, he looked at her face and saw the color draining from it. Without hesitating, he carried her in his arms towards the medical wing and was glad as he met up with his female teammate. _**

_**Taking a look at who had just arrived, Sakura quickly took notice to who was in the blonde's arms. Seeing the Uchiha heiress unconscious, she quickly became alert and told Naruto to set her down in the next room. **_

_**As swiftly as the blond could move, he quickly set Katara down on the bed as the pink-haired medic sat down to examine her. **_

_**Looking at her patient carefully, Sakura quickly turned towards him and said, "Naruto, make sure to inform everyone about what's going on; I'll be here performing a few tests to see what's wrong." **_

**"_Of course! I'll be back." Replied the hyperactive shinobi as he left the wing to tell the others. _**

_**End** _

"_Naruto, like I said, I have no idea what's wrong with….." Sakura had said as she turned towards to see everyone in the medical wing. "Hehe, hi everyone…umm..I'm sure Naruto has informed you about everything." _

"_Yeah…I'm pretty sure everyone knows what's going on considering that Naruto went around yelling throughout the whole base." Stated the lazy nin as he turned to give a glance at the blonde. _

"_Well, since we're all here... we better start trying to find out what's wrong with her." Said Naruto as he led everyone into the other room. As the lights turned on, the Uchiha heiress was back in her unconscious state and as everyone surrounded the bed, everyone realized how pale she actually looked. _

"_I just can't figure out what's going on. She seems fine, but she's been thrashing in her sleep." Commented the pink-haired medic as she addressed everyone. _

_Seeing the Uchiha heiress continuing to move in her sleep and clutching her head, everyone watched in shock as what they were witnessing. As Kakashi came closer and slowly touched her forehead he slowly formed a few handsigns before removing his hand. Within a few minutes, her movements slowed down and came to a full stop as it seemed as though she was never bothered in her sleep. _

_Looking at the silver-haired nin with astonishment, everyone in the room was confused. Although some showed it more obviously than others, everyone waited for an explanation from him. Turning towards everyone, Kakashi replied with, "I've been able to calm her down. She used to have these types of problems as a child every once in awhile. Considering that she's only a half-vampire, she's not fully aware when her body needs blood. She hasn't had any for quite some time, but she eventually does need it." _

"_So what you're saying is that it's not a huge emergency; all she needs to do is some blood and she'll be fine?" questioned Naruto as he addressed his sensei. _

"_That's that basis with what I'm saying…but there are some things you have to be aware of. Coming from the royal family of the Uchiha clan, there are always certain things that are a part of them. If she doesn't get any blood soon, she'll transform into this blood-crazed vampire; this is basically a defense mechanism that the royal family only has; it's, if you want to call it, a last resort. Using what energy she has left over, her other half can take over in order to save her life. Of course, this has only happened once, so if we get her to the blood as quickly as possible, we'll be able to avoid this situation. Not only is this a bad situation, the worst scenario would result in death." _

"_So we better hurry up, but what should we do now?" asked Sasuke as he stepped forward. _

"_We'll have to wait until she wakes up to tell her what's going on." Replied Kakashi as he addressed everyone. _

_

* * *

_

_As the sun rose to show that a new day had come, Katara slowly opened her eyes meet up with the light. Once she got used with the room's lighting, she was surpised to see herself in a room other than her own. Recalling last night's events, the Uchiha heiress felt how faint she was and tried to sit up on bed as she took in her surroundings. _

_Only after a few moments of trying to figure out what was wrong with her, Katara turned her head towards the door as she felt several people enter into the room. Searching each and everyone's faces for an answer, she silently waited for someone to talk and just as Katara expected, Kakashi came forward and began to talk. _

"_Katara, about what happened yesterday, there should be some things that should come to your attention. At the moment, I know that you feel weak and tired; that's just another sign that you need to go hunt. As you can probably notice now, you're nails have grown longer and your fangs have sharpened…" With that comment, the Uchiha heiress was full of shock and quickly grabbed a mirror to see what he was saying was true; once taking a look at herself, Katara realized that she had the exact changes the copy cat nin had mentioned earlier and quickly turned back towards him to see if he had anything else to say. Seeing that he was done talking, the Uchiha quickly replied with, "I'm fine, Kakashi-sensei. Here look!" the Uchiha heiress said as she lifted herself off of the bed and began walking on the ground. Confidently trying to show them that she was fine, she failed miserably as she almost fainted within taking a few more steps. _

_Before her body had hit the ground, she felt arms envelop her form as she looked up and saw that her friend, Koji, had managed to catch her. _

"_Katara, you're not fine…you're in an extremely weakened state that you can barely walk." Stated the sand-kunoichi as a hint of worry showed in her voice. _

"_Listen you guys, I understand your concern, but I'm not willing to do something like that. I mean it's not like I'll die or something like that. I'll be fine." The Uchiha reassured her friends as she gave them a smile. _

_Although everyone did not notice, the older Uchiha had stormed off on his own once he heard her answer. He had become enraged and had left to be alone for awhile. _

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* * *

_

_Once arriving in his own room, the older Uchiha quickly slammed his fist towards the wall and took out all his anger. Not caring that his knuckle was bleeding and in pain, he continued to punch the wall over and over again. As soon as he stopped his own actions and was able to calm down, he turned his attention towards the door as his younger brother entered. _

"_Itachi…" said the younger Uchiha as he found his brother in his room. "We need to talk." _

_As he turned towards his younger brother, he gave him a glance and replied with, "We don't need to talk. She's already made her decision and I can't stand by and watch her die, Sasuke." _

"_I realize that, Itachi; but right now, she's refusing. We can't do anything at the moment. Don't worry about it as of now, just be thankful that she's still alive." _

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* * *

_

_After everyone had tried to convince the heiress, there was still no success. Once after that, everyone had left the room, except for one silver-haired Jounin. As he leaned onto one of the walls of the room, Katara felt a bit uneasy as it was still silent in the room. In her own mind, she thought that Kakashi had something up his sleeve, but trying to ignore that, the Uchiha heiress tried to fall asleep once again. _

'_**Alright, I'm sure I'll be fine…I mean this will probably boil down within a few days.' Thought Katara** as she slowly closed her eyes, getting ready for sleep. _

_**Of course…but you don't want to die, do you?**_

'_**Wha-what? Wh-who is that?' **_

_**You shouldn't be worried, but I'd suggest you follow old-man Kakashi's advice. We wouldn't want something bad to happen, now would we?**_

'_**What are you talking about, something bad, happening?' **_

_**Katara, this is just a warning…you will drink some blood eventually or else something bad will happen. But of course, I always love being let out and causing chaos. Haha, I guess it's your own choice then. Decide wisely. **_

_As the conversation in the Uchiha's mind ended, Katara quickly opened her eyes and sat up in bed. Seeing that her teacher was still in the room, she wanted an answer, so she quickly blurted out, "Kakashi-sensei?!" _

_As he looked up form his book, he turned his full attention to the Uchiha as he gave her a nod and allowed her to continue. "I-I just heard a voice in my head. Is that normal?" _

_Getting up from where he was in the room, he quickly sat down on a chair near her bed and was ready to answer her question. "Princess Katara… this happened to you once when you were a child. Seeing that you're part of the royal family, everyone has this animalistiv side that takes control if you're life is in danger. That side will take over if your inner self sees that you cannot handle the life or death situation. That's what happens to all royal family members. They jump into this uncontrolling animalistic side because their lives are in danger._**" **

"_I see, Kakashi…but I don't think I can bring myself to do something like that. I just don't like the idea of getting that close to blood led alone drinking someone's blood." Stated the Uchiha heiress. _

"_I see that you really don't understand the circumstances right now, Katara; well, there's no use to trying to convince you for now. You've always had that stubborn personality like your father; I just hope you come to realize it before it's too late. Just try to figure this out on your own. As of now, I'll leave you to your own thoughts." Said the silver-haired Jounin as he got up from his seat and left the room. _

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* * *

_

_Five days later: _

_After convincing Sakura that she would be able to go to rest in her own room, the Uchiha heiress was currently in the most peaceful state of sleep she had been within a few days. For some days, she had been having nightmares and thrashing in her sleep, but today's rest was tranquil. As Katara slowly opened her navy orbs, she slowly stretched and got up in bed. Seeing that she was well rested and realizing that the voice in her head was gone, she felt better than ever. _

'_**I guess today is going to be a good day.' Katara thought **__as she smiled, got out of bed, and got ready for the day. _

_As Katara splashed water onto her face to refresh herself, she quickly brushed her teeth and saw how much better she looked. It seemed as though she recovered quickly without any help and as she dried her face, she quickly put on training clothes and headed out towards the training grounds. Dressed in a red long-sleeved top, and black shorts, the Uchiha swiflt arrived; with a more upbeat feeling today, Katara greeted everyone with a huge smile. _

_Everyone at the training grounds saw the different persona in her, and as they watched her train in peace, everyone's mind was set at ease. __**'She must've recovered then!' thought Naruto **__as he watched her train by herself with a smile on her face. _

_

* * *

_

'_**My mind is set at ease right now.' The Uchiha heiress thought **__as she took a seat down and took a drink of water. _

_But just as suddenly as e everything was fine, things turned bad as Katara dropped her water bottle, and fell to the floor, holding onto her head. Screaming and yelling in pain, she tried to calm herself down, but the pain continued on. _

_Itachi and Naruto both ran to her side to see what was wrong; they had just seen her training moments ago and it seemed as though she was fine, but as of now, they both felt uneasy as she continued to cluth onto her head and cry in pain. _

_

* * *

_

'_**What's going on? This intense pain…' thought the Uchiha. **_

_**I already warned you about what would happen Katara. **_

'_**Stop this!' yelled Katara as she continued to cringe from the pain. **_

_**You'll thank me for this later; I'm only here as a defense mechanism; but don't worry, I'll try not to hurt anyone. **_

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* * *

_

_As soon as the princess' body had calmed down, both the blonde and the Uchiha attempted to come closer to her body. But as soon as they came close enough to see if she was fine, they saw a sinister look in her own eyes. They were no longer navy, but the deep, crimson color of her sharingan. _

"_K-katara, are you arlight?" questioned Naruto as he looked at her with worry. _

_Looking at both males with her crimson orbs, the Uchiha heiress gave them a smirk and replied with, "Of course, Naruto….I'm fine. Just a little thirsty." The Uchiha had said as she attempted to slash at both males with her long nails. Taking another look at her again, both Itachi and Naruto noticed the difference in her appearance; with a more evil aura surrounding her, they saw how more noticeable her fangs and nails were, along with how her voice was a little bit off from what it normally sounded like. _

_Hearing a harsh growl coming from the female, both males turned their attention towards her and saw the complete bloodlust demeanor behind her eyes. _

"_Naruto….keep moving. At this state, she's unstable and able to harm either one of us." Explained the Uchiha as he activated his bloodline and turned to see the blond nod in response. _

_Just as both males took out kunai knives to defend theselves with, Katara quickly charged at them with such an inhumane speed that she was before both and them and managed to punch them into the opposing wall. _

_Both males felt the impact towards the solid object and as they both came out from the rubble, Katara stood before them with that same evil smirk that they had seen before. As they both stood before her as well, all three of them turned to the right as they saw that everyone at the base had come due to the commotion. _

"_Hey! What's going…." The sand-kunoichi had started to say before realizing what was going on. Once everyone turned their attention towards the Uchiha heiress, they knew what was going on. _

"_Guys, don't make any sudden movements; just stay calm." The copy cat nin whispered to everyone as he stepped forward. _

_As soon as Kakashi came forward, Katara's crimson orbs were paying attention to him, waiting for his response. "Katara, let's calm down…there's no need for this." Kakashi said as he put his hands up to show that he had no intent to attack. _

_It seemed as though that he managed to calm her animalistic side a bit, but as she looked him directly in the eye, she replied, "Kakashi…you know as much as I do, it's also my duty to protect her. I'm only doing what's going to save her….and if it hurts people in the end, it shouldn't matter, as long as she lives." Her animalistic side had answered as she gave them the same grin. _

_Lifting her nose up, Katara slowly began to sniff the air and turned towards the group; "Do you smell that? I think it's blood.." the Uchiha heiress said as she smirked andbegan to head towards her target. Her own animalistic side quickly headed towards the big group and as she came closer and closer, everyone got ready. _

_As soon as Katara was able to tackle down the pink-haired medic, a huge ball of flames along with a pile of sand pushed her away. As she quickly dodge the fireball, and landed onto her feet, the Uchiha tried again. Senseing that a presence was behind her, Katara quickly took out a kunai from her holster and blocked an attack from her sensei. Giving him another smirk, she quickly took hold of his arm and slammed him down into the opposing ground. _

_Seeing that it was a clone, the Uchiha became more alert and was ready to achieve her goal of bloodlust. Becoming more and more crazed within each moment, the Uchiha had enough and was beomcing impatient. As soon as everyone was attempting to hold her down, she quickly widened her sharingan eyes and unleashed a powerfully gust of wind. _

_As soon as everything c;eared, the Uchiha heiress quickly opened her eyes and saw the complete damage of the area; most of the trees had fallen, and seeing that most of the people were still recovering from her attack, her animalistic side knew that now was the chance to fulfill her desire of blood. _

_Katara slowly moved towards the silver-haird Jounin's body and as she was about to come into contact, she was tackled to the gorund. Glaring at her attacker, she saw a blond head and realized who it was. "Naruto!" the Uchiha growled, "Let go of me!" screamed the female as she tried to get out of his grip, seeing that several of his clones were holding her down. _

_Feeling as though he had won, Naruto was not expecting the next upcoming move from the Uchiha heiress; once she relaxed and calmed down, Katara closed her eyes and as soon as she opened them, her body was enveloped in flames. As she continued to turn up the heat, the blonde's clones eventually let go, and they were all blown out of the way to the other side. _

_Attempting to have another go at it, Naruto quickly got onto his feet despite his burns. As soon as he was going in for another attack, the older Uchiha quickly stopped his movements. "Naruto, get out of the way. I'll handle this." _

"_Are you crazy?! You won't be able to stop her alone, Itachi." Replied the blonde. _

"_I'll be fine. Just watch my back. I have a plan." The Uchiha answered as he stepped forward and walked towards the heiress. _

_With a smirk on her face, her animalistic side said "Are you here to stop me as well? Might as well give up now, Itachi. You're not going to stop me. Do you really want her to die?" _

"_Hn….I understand the circumstances right now, but Katara, just listen to me." Replied Itachi as he looked directly in her eyes. _

_With a dark chuckle, her animalistic side replied with, "You think that Katara is here? You must be ridiculous! She's gone right now…and you're allowing her to die this moment. She won't hear whatever you want to tell her." _

"_It's always worth a try." Whispered Itachi as he turned to look at Katara. As he came closer and closer towards her form, her own animalistic side watched him as he came before her. "Katara, listen….just hear me out. Come back; don't let this thing take over you." _

"_Hn…I told you it wasn't going to work.." her other side stated as she watched in amusement as the Uchiha begged the heiress to come back. _

_But ignoring her words, he continued on; "I know you're in there and that you can hear me; Katara, I promise that I will never hurt you. I'm just trying to help." And with that, he quickly took a kunai out and stabbed it into his palm. Katara's crimson eyes widened in shock. _

_

* * *

_

_Flashback: _

_**Sitting on the Uchiha castle rooftop, nearly before the sunrise, both young Uchihas sat there in silence, until one impatient princess broke the silence. **_

"_**Itachi, why are we out here? Did you really have to wake me up this early in the morning to talk to me?" questioned Katara as she looked at him with tired, navy orbs. **_

"_**Katara, I just need to let you know something." Stated the Uchiha. **_

"_**What is it, Itachi-kun?" asked Katara. **_

"_**I just want you to know Katara, I promise that I will never hurt you." Replied the older Uchiha. **_

_End _

'**Katara, I promise that I will never hurt you'**

'_**What?' thought Katara as she saw what was happening outside from her mind. 'I-I remember that day….**_

_**As she opened her eyes and saw what was happening, she realized the destruction that she caused and as she turned to see the pained look in Itachi's eyes, she knew she had enough. **_

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* * *

_

_As shocking as it seemed, the older Uchiha was surprised to see Katara embrace him and cry. He looked down and saw that she somehow came back to him and as his eyes met up with her crimson orbs, she began to apologize. "Itachi…I'm sorry…I'm so sorry." The heiress said as she continued to cry. _

"_It's alright, Katara." The Uchiha said as he soothed her and calmed her down. As she listned to his soft words, she turned her attention towards his palm and felt responsible for this. As she turned to look into his soft eyes, he allowed her to lick the blood off his wound. _

_Aftera few more moments of silence, the Uchiha heiress seemed to be back to her own self seeing that her fangs and nails retracted back to normal. Although she coulnd't falthom how she had caused this much destruction, she was thankful that no one else was hurt. As she looked around, she saw that all her friends were surrounding her and were glad that she was fine. _

_Sakura had stepped forward and as she checked all of Katara's vital signs, she confirmed that she was now fine and would be able to train in about two days. Realizing that she shouldn've listened to all of them, especially Kakashi, she embraced Itachi even more as she whispered in his ear, "Arigatou, Itachi." _

_As he turned towards her and stroked her long hair, he whispered back, "Your welcome." _

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**I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter; I have to say that I"m a bit nervous about this one. I haven't written a chapter in awhile, so I'm just concerned with how it came altogether. Send me you thoughts by reviewing please! **

**Until next time! **

**-katara**


	13. Chapter Twelve: The Departed

**I felt it wasn't satisfying enough to update one chapter, but I wanted to update a second chapter considering that I haven't updated in awhile, so here's a present for the holidays! :) Hope you uys enjoy it! For all of you who like the ItachiXKatara moments, I hope you guys are please with this chapter since I wanted to add in more of those moments. **

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**Chapter 12: The Departed**

_It was another quiet day in the base as everyone continued to stay indoors due to the well-known cold of the Country of Snow. It was still late afternoon, and as everyone had already had lunch together, both males and females broke off into different groups. On one hand, the males of the base seemed to be more interested in talking about strategy, while the females, were quite different; they'd rather spend time talking about gossip and try to make the best out of things. _

_"So since we already split up the groups, do you all understand what the plan is?" questioned the silver-haired Jounin as he looked at every male around the table. _

_With a nod in response from every male around him, the copy nin leaned back in his chair, being a bit relaxed, and sat back and drank the rest of his tea. As silence overcame the table, it was quickly broken as soon as the loud-mouthed leaf nin said, "So…..has anything interesting happened since we've been here. This is boring…I want to actually fight out there and have some action!" Naruto had said as he knocked the teapot over the table as he lifted his fist up in the air. _

_As the warm liquid started dripping off from the table, every male in the room looked directly at the blonde in annoyance. "Naruto…..when will you ever learn." Stated the Younger Uchiha as he smacked his own forehead in annoyance and shook his head. _

_"I agree with him, un. This place is boring…..is there anything interesting to talk about, un? I'm tired of talking about strategy." Agreed the blonde artist. _

_A chuckle erupted from the blue shark's mouth and as he leaned back in his seat, with his sword beside his chair, he turned towards his partner and said, "I think Itachi probably has something interesting going on with him and a certain someone." Kisame smirked as he looked at the Uchiha. From the corner of his eyes, Itachi gave the shark a glare, but quickly concealed back to his calm form as everyone turned their attention towards him. _

_"Who is it?!" asked Naruto as he was about to get out of his seat in excitement. It seemed as if he hadn't noticed anything at all. _

_"He's talking about, Katara." Answered the Hyuuga as he folded his arms and closed his white eyes in annoyance. The blonde's mouth opened wide and as his face showed shock, he turned towards the younger Uchiha and saw a nod from him. Naruto then turned to the older Uchiha and as Itachi showed nothing within his eyes, the blonde exclaimed, "NO WAY! I think I would know if there was anything going on between you two." _

_"It's true…..anyone can see it. I guess you were too blind, Naruto." Stated Gaara as his serious eyes met up with blue. _

_"Now that you mention it, un….I'm interested to hear what's happening between you two, un." Said Deidara, as once again everyone turned towards the Uchiha to hear any answer. It seemed that everyone was interested in hearing what was going on between the two of them. _

_But being the mysterious type of guy he is, the Uchiha replied with, "There's nothing to tell." _

_"Aww………come on! Give us something more than that!" yelled the hyperactive shinobi as he showed his disappointment. _

_"You want to tell them, Itachi, or should I?" asked the younger Uchiha as he smirked at his older brother. And as Itachi looked towards his sibling, Sasuke continued with, "It seems that you two have become close ever since you guys met again. I can see that you care about her, I mean why else would you storm out of the room once you found out you weren't in the same group as her….the question is, have you told her yet?" _

_"Hn…" replied the older sibling as he still watched his younger brother. But there was no other response. _

_"Yeah, have you told her yet?" questioned Kankorou as he had just asked the question that was on everyone's mind. _

_As there was no response, everyone knew what the answer was, and as the older Uchiha was about to get up and leave from the table, he froze as Koji's voice broke through. "Itachi….it would be wise to tell her soon. Seeing that we're about to enter into a war, we don't know how things will turn out." _

_As Koji said that statement towards the Uchiha, Itachi slowly got up from his seat; as everyone had their eyes on him, he quickly left the room as he said, "I'm going to bed." _

_

* * *

_

_In other room of the base, the girls had taken shelter from the males. After eating together with them, it was just a nice get away to just hangout with the gender and rather than being interested in talking about strategies and fighting moves, the girls were more interested to hear about any gossip. _

_All the females were currently sitting in Katara's room and as they all made a circle within the room, they were all ready to talk. _

_"Thank goodness we don't have to deal with the guys right now……some of them are really getting on my nerves." Stated Temari as she leaned her body against the wall. _

_"Oh come on, Temari, some of them aren't that bad…..I mean, well actually….unless you count, Naruto." Replied the pink-haired kunoichi as she slightly agreed with the sand-kunoichi. _

_"You guys, Naruto isn't that bad…he's just really hyperactive I guess." Stated the Uchiha as she scratched the back of her head trying to convince them otherwise. _

_"I guess…….but I don't know how you put up with it, Katara." Said Temari. _

_"Temari, well, you get used to him." Replied the Uchiha. _

_"Precisely, just as how when you get into an organization full of men, you basically get used to them too." said Konan. _

_"I can't imagine being stuck with that many guys. Wouldn't they get on your nerves, Konan?" asked Temari as she turned her attention towards the bluette. _

_"At first they did, but like I said before, you get used to it. I'm sure you can put up with it." Answered the kunoichi. _

_"I suppose…." Stated the sand kunoichi. _

_"So instead of talking about strategies, why don't we gossip?" Sakura said as all three kunoichi turned towards the Uchiha heiress. As if she felt cornered, Katara quickly showed signs of nervousness as she slowly backed away and tried to retreat. As she as caught among the three females, she had no choice but to wait what the girls wanted to know; and she in fact, knew what they were about to ask. _

_"So, Katara, I heard that you and Itachi have been getting along…" stated Konan as she gave the Uchiha heiress an innocent smile. _

_"Y-yeah…what about it?" asked Katara as she tried to conceal her blush. As if pointing an accusing finger at her, Temari quickly exclaimed, "You like him, don't you?!" _

_Putting her hands up in defense, Katara replied with, "Ummm...I have no idea what you guys are talking about." _

_As if things couldn't get any worse, the pink-haired kunoichi joined in; "On come on, Katara, you do. And I think he's interested in you too." _

_"Sakura's right, Katara. I've known Itachi for some time now and I've never seen him be so fond towards someone before. It's quite a nice change. He's starting to open up more; if you knew him beforehand, you would've been surprised." Answered Konan. _

_"Alright, alright, you guys got me. I guess I do having feelings towards him.." replied Katara. _

_"Well then, you know what you should do? Tell him right away!" Sakura said as she attempted to encourage her friend. _

_"WHAT?! I can't, Sakura.." the Uchiha heiress said as she looked a all three kunoichi with frightful eyes. _

_"Oh, come on, Katara, you can do it! And besides, we are fighting a war here. If you don't tell him now, it might be too late." Temari said as she reasoned with the girl. But as Katara listened to what they were saying, she couldn't help but fear rejection and feel nervous as she thought about the sensitive topic. _

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* * *

_

_As the Uchiha heiress nervously walked around the base, she couldn't help but continue to think about the conversation she had just had with her friends. Katara was too caught up in her own thoughts that she didn't realize that she just had walked into the kitchen full of males. Wanting to leave before anyone would notice her, she failed once she heard Naruto's loud voice call out her name, "Katara! Come and join us!" _

_Wishing that she was just invisible for the moment, she had no choice but to grab a seat near the blonde and be surrounded by a room full of guys. Trying to hide the nervous look on her face, the Uchiha quickly put on a smile and tried to calm down. _

_"So Katara, I heard that you're into a certain someone." Stated the hyperactive blonde as he along with everyone around the table leaned in closer to hear her response. _

_Trying not to have a blush appear on her face, the heiress turned towards all of them and said, "I don't know what you're talking about, Naruto," she had said as she gave them all a sheepish grin. _

_"Well too bad for you, Katara, but Sakura already stopped by here and told us what you guys have been talking about." Sasuke said as he leaned back in his chair and watched as Katara's eyes widened in shock and showed an evident pinkish blush on her cheeks. _

_Being restless in her seat, the heiress looked at all of them and tried to form some coherent words that she could use to respond back with; "Li-like I said, I'm not into anyone. I mean it's not like I've been hanging around Itachi for most of the time and it's not like…" Katara started to say before clutching her hands over her mouth once she realized what she had just said. _

_"Hahaha, I knew it!" the blonde nin exclaimed as he pointed at her and made her blush even more. "But you know what, Katara? He feels…..hmph, hmph!" Naruto had tried saying before Deidara clamped his hand over the blonde's mouth after jumping off the table to stop him. _

_"You're just in luck, Katara. Itachi just stormed off to his room, un." The blonde artist said as he watched Katara's confused look turn into concern as she got up form her seat and left the room. _

_"That was close, un." the rock nin looked at the other blonde with a glare as he removed his hand. _

_"What was that for?!" Naruto yelled as he looked back, waiting for an answer. _

_"Naruto, you need to let them figure this out on their own I'm sure she would want to know his true feelings for her through his own words, not yours." Answered the Uchiha as he turned toward his friend. _

_

* * *

_

**_Itachi's PV: _**

**_Dream: _**

**_"Itachi-kun....we're going to get in trouble once Kakashi finds us." a younger, 5-year old Uchiha Katara worriedly stated as she looked down from her spot on the tree branch. _**

**_"You worry too much, Katara. He won't find us from up here." Calmly answered Itachi as he leaned back on the tree trunk and looked ahead towards the sunset. The colors swirled together in a magnificent rainbow, creating this array of peace and beauty in nature. And as both Uchihas watched the sun slowly set, the older Uchiha noticed that they had been spotted. But as he turned towards the heiress, he saw that she was too mesmerized in the different colors of the sky to notice. _**

**_"Isn't it beautiful, Itachi?" questioned the female Uchiha as she turned towards him with a smile. _**

**_"Hn…" replied Itachi as he smirked and saw how annoyed she would always get when he would just reply in that way. As he saw a huge vein pop from her forehead, the Uchiha heiress quickly exclaimed, "Itachi! What's with your one-word responses?! What does 'hn' mean anyway?!" _**

**_"There's nothing wrong with answering that way, Katara. I just find it funny that you become annoyed with it. Getting back to your question, yes, it is beautiful. Now, let's start going back….I'm sure Kakashi isn't going to be happy once he finds you." Said the Uchiha male as he held out a hand to lift Katara up. Katara grabbed his hand and as she hoisted herself up, she quickly dusted the dirt off her clothes. _**

**_"Well, whose idea was this in the first place? I'd say yours….and he might be mad….but it will be fine!" said the heiress as she smiled at him. _**

**_Just as she was about to start to make her way down towards the ground, Katara suddenly lost her balance and quickly slipped off the branch. As she felt her leg slightly scrape against a branch, she felt her body quickly start to drop from the high height. And her eyes looked towards Itachi as they portrayed her shocked face. As if his body couldn't move, the Uchiha watched as his friend started to fall and stood frozen in his place. _**

**_Katara felt her body pick up speed and as she turned to look back towards the ground, she knew that she would collide with it within a short amount of time. As she closed her eyes and waited for impact, within a few moments, she felt warm arms wrapped around her body. Opening her navy orbs she turned to see the silver-haired Jounin as he was carrying her down towards the ground. _**

**_As he set her feet down on the grass Itachi joined the two and watched as he waited to hear what he would say. Just exactly as he predicted, Kakashi turned towards her and said, "Katara….you were lucky I was here to save you." He had said as he put his hands in his pockets. _**

**_"I know…..I'm sorry….but I'm fine now, you see, Kakashi? I'm all better! The only thing that's hurt is this scrape." The young heiress said as she pointed to her bleeding injury. "It's nothing too bad.." _**

**_As the silver-haired nin came to look at the minor injury on Katara's leg, he felt a dangerous aura in the air. Although Katara didn't take notice of anything, she just turned towards the direction her guard was looking. _**

**_Within moments, Kakashi saw Itachi quickly rush towards Katara with inhumane speed with an animalistic grin on his face. Just as he was about to make contact, the silver-haired Jounin managed to push him out of the way. While this was happening, the Uchiha heiress stared at the scene with confusion written all over her face. As she was about to approach her friend, an arm stopped her movement. Katara slowly looked up and saw that Kakashi had stopped her from moving, and as she was about to question him, he stated, "Princess Katara, do not go near him….it isn't safe. You will escort yourself back to the castle grounds." _**

**_"B-but, Kakashi….what about Itachi-kun?" asked Katara. _**

**_Staring at her navy orbs, Kakashi's eye softened a bit as he reached to her eye-level. "He'll be fine, I just need to talk to him for awhile. Now run along…" he said as he patted her head and watched her walk back to the castle. As Kakashi knew she was gone, he turned around to address the male Uchiha. _**

**_"Itachi…..what you were about to do back there was out of line. I know you're one of her dearest friends, but at any cost, my job is to protect her. I'm warning you, if that happens again, you will not be allowed to see her." Stated the copy cat nin. _**

**_"I-I just don't understand what came over me…." Said the young Uchiha. _**

**_"You may not be fully aware of it, but you're going through changes. As a full-vampire you're animalistic characteristics are kicking in. It's not too soon before you're trained to go hunt after her meals to feast on blood. But you really do need to control yourself. The way you almost hurt Katara just proves how you must restrain yourself." Explained Kakashi as leaned onto a tree. _**

**_"I understand that….but I had a strange sensation when I saw her blood. It was as if all my senses were heightened. Her smell.. it was more alluring….." the Uchiha said as he looked at his hands. _**

**_"Strange…..that usually doesn't happen unless you've found your mate. But it might just have been the fact that you saw blood and just acted upon instinct. But whatever the case, I just hope that does not happen again." Said Kakashi._**

**_"I'll make sure it doesn't….for Katara's sake, I won't hurt her." Said the Uchiha. _**

**_"Well…now that's settled, we both have to head back. I have a lot of work to do…" stated the Jounin as he turned towards the castle walls and continued to walk at a slow and even pace as the Uchiha quietly followed behind. _**

**_'I won't lose control again…' thought Itachi _**_as he walked back home. _

_End. _

_Out of my own anger, I chose to take my mind off of everything, and sat on my bed, quietly meditating. But as I sat there trying to stay in a peace of mind, it only brought me closer to everything that my life was going to lead up to. _

_My biggest fears have been realized as of now; currently, we will be going off into battle for the sake of saving the Uchiha Kingdom. My group is assigned to find out the location of where most of the prisoners are being held and from that point, we'll be infiltrating Orochimaru's base. Normally, this mission would not make me too concerned about another person's being, but somewhere deep inside me, I feel my feelings for her continuing to grow each and every day. And for that fact, I feel that I need to be by her side in every moment possible to protect her fragile self. _

_Her scent becomes more and more alluring everyday and as I try to contain myself from just making her my mate, I know that at this moment, I cannot. For her own sake, I need to learn to control myself around her. Therefore, I need to accept my mission at the moment. _

_As I was just about to come to the peace I needed in my mind, I heard a knock on the door; without opening my eyes, I answered back with a "Come in," and allowed the person to enter into the room. _

_Feeling the person's eyes stare at my form, I decided to open one of my onyx eyes to see who it was. But as I looked up, I saw the exact person that was always stuck in my mind: Uchiha Katara. Her smile, her kindness, was reflected in every way and it seemed to illuminate from her form; and as she stood before me, I continued to hold myself back from just grabbing her and making her mine right then and there. Instead, I gave her a nod of acknowledgement and allowed her to speak. _

_"Itachi….." she said as she nervously looked down at the floor. But as she tried to avoid my eyes, she continued speaking as she said, "I-I just wanted to tell you something." Katara said as she hesitated, but I found her nervousness quite amusing as I watched her. As she finally turned to look directly at me, she continued with, "I-I……ummm..are you alright?" she finished saying as she looked now directly looked at me. _

_With concern evident in her eyes, I knew she had several things that would worry her; I didn't want her to worry about any more things than necessary, so looking back at her concerned face, I answered with, "I'm fine, Katara. Now what are you really here for?" _

_Watching her closely, I knew that she was a bit shocked at how I knew she was going to say something else, but once seeing her trying to conceal it, she had a slight blush on her face as she responded back, "I just wanted to know if you were fine. Deidara told me that you stormed off." _

_"Like I said, I'm fine. You have too many worries right now; you don't need something else to burden you, Katara." I answered as I watched her slowly sit beside me on my bed and turn towards me. Her navy orbs deeply penetrated my own and as she continued to look at me, she said, "Well, I just wanted to know if you wanted to go train with me? I mean, if you want to; you don't have to." _

_As she turned away from me with an evident blush on her cheeks, and managed to turn her face towards me; as she looked at me, I couldn't help but smile as I responded with, "Sure, let's go." I had said as I got up and grabbed my weapons. _

_Seeing that she was not following behind me, I turned around to see her still sitting up on my bed with a smile on her face. As I looked directly at her, I approached her again and helped her up from the bed and allowed her to rest her feet on the ground. _

_Not realizing that we were still holding hands, I saw another blush on her face and we both quickly let go, we both continued to walk side by side, towards the training grounds. _

_

* * *

_

_Normal pv: _

_Both Uchihas arrived at the grounds, ready to train. Although the Uchiha heiress has trained with Itachi before, she knew that he was more advanced and an amazing shinobi. Despite how much she tried to train, she felt as though she could never reach his level of power, but still, Katara felt glad that she was able to spend time with him. Although this wasn't her ideal plan, she was excited to see how far she had improved compared to him. _

_"So how are we going to do this?" asked the heiress as she turned towards the Uchiha. _

_"I think we should work on your taijutsu. No weapons or jutsus, just hand to hand combat." Stated Itachi as he looked towards her. _

_"Alright, I hope your ready." Replied Katara as she gave him a confident smirk. With a smirk of his own, he responded with, "We'll see." _

_Katara stood a few feet away from him, wearing black pants and a red tank top, with her arms at her side, getting ready to start. The other Uchiha stood in front of her and as both gave a nod to the other, they both began to send punches and kicks against the other. _

_As the heiress narrowly avoided a punch to the stomach, she managed to dodge another roundhouse kick that was aimed at her side. Knowing that she couldn't continue to dodge each and every attack that was headed for her, she quickly decided to send some chakra into her fist. Without any hesitation, she sent her fist directly towards his body and as it was about to make contact, he avoided it as he jumped out of the way and landed onto his feet. Seeing that his sharingan was on, the Uchiha heiress felt it necessary to activate her own bloodline as well. _

_Now that both Uchihas were pt onto the same playing field, the intensity of this fight was quickly heightened as both Uchihas jumped into action with quick attacks and fast speed as the other tried to gain some sort of advantage. _

_As both were able to bounce back from any attack the other would give them, they continued to try to outmaneuver the other, but to no avail, no one was able to gain the upper hand. _

_Once seeing an opening, Katara quickly took it as she was able to trip her opponent with a side kick to his legs. Seeing that Itachi was now on the ground, the heiress quickly used her speed to hold him down. _

_With a smile on her face, she quickly said, "I win!" She had said as she got up and jumped up and down full of joy. Not realizing that the Uchiha was staring at her, she composed herself and got down to help him up. _

_Just as Itachi was almost back on his feet, he swiftly managed to pull her down with him; which ended up in a situation that made her blush even more. Seeing that the older Uchiha was on top of her and too close for comfort, Katara felt a bit tense as she looked at him directly into his onyx eyes. _

_"Itachi…that's unfair!" the heiress joked as she looked up at him with a giggle. _

_Hearing a slight chuckle from him, Katara smiled as he helped her up and helped her dust of the dirt from her clothes. _

_"You've definitely improved; I'm impressed." Said the Uchiha as he looked at her. _

_With another smile and blush on her face, she replied with, "Arigatou, Itachi-kun." _

_

* * *

_

_Two days later, Katara was already packed and was currently looking out the window. It was the exact day that both ninja groups would separate in order to lead Orochimaru's men away from the princess. As the sun slowly made its way down the horizon, the Uchiha female watched as the bright orange, yellow, and pink colors of the sunset left the sky. The sky began to darken as the sun set and as Katara turned around to pick up her things, she spotted Itachi, as he came up to her and said, "Katara, it's time to leave." _

_The Uchiha heiress quickly approached the Uchiha male, and as she gave him the biggest hug ever, in the embrace, she whispered, "Be careful, Itachi." _

_As the hug ended, Itachi looked at her face; through her eyes, he could see that she was truly worried about him and responded with, "I'll be fine. Now go. They're waiting for you outside." _

_"Arigatou, Itachi-kun." Katara said as she slowly made her way towards the door. But before leaving, she once again, approached Itachi, and placed a kiss on his lips. As she stepped away, she said, "Good-bye, Itachi," and left the room to meet up with her group. _

_But from behind, her hand was suddenly grabbed and as she turned around to meet her gaze with the Uchiha, she realized that as she turned, she had suddenly lost her own balance. As she tightly clutched onto Itachi's arm in order to stop her fall, her plan had not occurred as she predicted, but instead, she took him down with her as well. _

_As Katara opened her navy orbs, she saw that Itachi's forehead was placed against her own and as she looked deep into his onyx eyes, she found it hard to breathe. Blushing at the closeness, she couldn't even formulate in her mind how she felt at the moment, but to her, it felt as if time had stopped just for the two of them. And as butterflies kept occurring in her stomach, it only allowed her to blush 5 shades deeper. Her chest moved up and down in a rapid manner as she continued to stare deeply into his onyx orbs. As she took a closer look at his facial features; she slowly traveled up from his jawline, making her way up into his eyes becoming lost in them. 'Wow……I think I'm going to faint.' Thought Katata as she continued to stare and couldn't help but see a hint of red on the Uchiha's face as well, but she quickly brushed that away. _

_As Itachi laid his forehead against hers, being her clumsy self at the moment, Katara moved her head too quickly and accidently hit her forehead onto his with a harsher impact than expected. As she looked up into his eyes again, she turned even more shades of red and now looked like the crimson color of her own Sharingan. _

_Looking deeply into his eyes again, Katara was lost and as she broke from her trance, she opened her eyes in shock as she felt his soft lips against her own. As he pulled away and stared at her face, Katara was so stunned and out of it that she didn't realize the moment he took her hand and set her back onto her feet. As she left the room and shut the door in a daze with her things, she walked out into the hallway and stopped to take a breath. _

_She quickly touched her own lips and blushed even more as she checked her erratic heart rate. 'I-I-I can't believe that happened." The Uchiha heiress thought as she put her fingers on her lips and dreamt of his mouth over hers. _

_After spending a few minutes of trying not to think about the kiss and to regain her composure, Katara made it outside of the base to meet up with her group. _

_

* * *

_

_The Uchiha male stood in the room dumbfounded at what had just happened. And as he broke out of his trance, he quickly made his way out of their base and met up with his group as well. As both groups said their good-byes and wished the other good luck, the two groups then left in different directions. _

_

* * *

_

_Itachi and the rest of his group stood back for a few minutes and watched as the group with Katara left towards the east. After a few more moments, the second group left and made its way westward. As the leader of the group, Itachi and the rest of the fleet made its way west towards Orochimaru's castle. Beforehand, there was a lot of planning what was going to happen, and as the Uchiha began to run through the plan over again in his head, he quickly was brought back to other thoughts. _

**_Flashback: _**

**_"Alright, so it's settled, the teams will be Katara, Naruto, Sasuke, Gaara, Shikamaru, Konan, Koji, and myself. On the other hand, the second team, in charge of infiltrating the castle will be, Itachi, Pein, Kisame, Deidara, Sasori, Temari, Kankuro, and Neji." Stated Kakashi as he addressed everyone in the small, cramped room. _**

**_"Kakashi, I think we should rearrange the groups. I should be on the same team with Katara." Said Itachi as he glared at the jounin. _**

**_"Listen, Itachi. I get where you are coming from, but you are the one with the most experience and you would be perfect for what the group's goal is. You need to stay on the other group." Explained the silver-haired Jounin. _**

**_After planning to divide themselves into separate groups and hearing Kakashi's situation, an angry Uchiha left the meeting room as he went out to get some fresh air. Itachi was a bit frustrated at how the silver-haired Jounin had divided the two groups. _**

**_Behind the scenes of everything, the Uchiha heiress stood back as she watched the older Uchiha leave the room in his own anger. _**

**_She looked at his retreating form and was concerned as she too left the room and followed closely behind him. 'I hope he's alright.' She thought as she ran after him. _**

**_Katara had made it through the long, barely-lit hallways of the hideout and had made her way towards a wooden door that would lead towards the backyard and the porch. As she slowly peeked through the door, she saw the Uchiha standing outside, leaning over the railings of the porch, while also looking out into the snow. _**

**_As the female Uchiha quietly closed the door behind her, she slowly made her way towards the angry male and softly touched his shoulder. Once she saw Itachi turn around and face her with his onyx eyes, she gave him a concerned look as she looked back with her navy orbs. As navy met onyx, she could see his gaze soften at her and at that moment, she decided to join him. Katara quickly stood beside him, leaning over the railings and watched the snow. _**

**_Turning her head, she saw that the Uchiha was looking at her and as she was about to say something, but Itachi interrupted by saying, "Why are you out here, Katara? You should be inside or you're going to catch a cold." _**

**_With a raise of her eyebrow, she turned to him and answered, "What about you? You might catch a cold as well and I can't let that happen. I just wanted to see if you were alright. You seemed quite upset about what happened." She had said as she showed her concern in her eyes. _**

**_The Uchiha looked deeply into her eyes and said, "You shouldn't be concerned. I'm fine. You shouldn't worry about me; the only person you need to worry about at the moment is yourself." _**

**_The Uchiha heiress looked at him with an expression of shock as she was surprised by his comment. Her expression turned back to normal after a moment and she then replied back with, "But is it so wrong to worry about someone else other than yourself?" Katara had said as the Uchiha turned towards her to listen, therefore, she continued with, "I mean, I somehow find strength within myself by knowing that by putting my life on the line, that I would be protecting someone close to my heart. And I do care about you." The Uchiha heiress ended as she slightly blushed as she looked up to see his reaction. _**

**_Itachi considered Katara's words for a moment, and as he looked back at her face, he couldn't help but get caught up in her slight pink complexion that made her navy orbs stand out even more. As he saw that she was waiting to see how he would respond, he slowly took hold of the side of her face, and directed it towards his own. As Katara stared back at his face, she heard his reply, "Katara… thank you." As he kept his hand holding the side of her face. _**

**_As Katara stared back at him with content eyes, she took hold of his hand with her own and looked back at him. As her cheeks turned into another shade of red, she responded with, "Y-your welcome, Itachi." She had said while also stuttering and smiling back at him. As Katara let go of his arm and let it fall to his side, she quickly turned her attention back to the snow. _**

**_From the corner of his onyx eyes, Itachi saw the Uchiha heiress gladly smiling as she watched the snowflakes fall. As she put her elbow on the railing and propped her head up, she peacefully enjoyed the silence; as she was unaware, Itachi couldn't help but stare at her and realize how she had matured so fast. Comparing the younger Katara to the one at the present, showed not much of a difference; the Katara he once knew as a child was so full of energy and always had a good heart, and at the moment, Itachi was glad that she hadn't even changed; he was glad that she was still the same girl he knew as a child. And as he reflected back on that, he couldn't help but smile and mumble, "Aishiteru , Katara." _**

**_The Uchiha heiress turned back to the male Uchiha and as she looked back at him with her lively smile, she asked, "Huh, did you say something, Itachi-kun?" _**

**_As a hint of shock flashed through his eyes, he quickly concealed it as he turned towards her, grabbed some snow in his hands, and threw it directly at her face. As the snow collided, Katara was shocked and as she managed to get all the snow off from her face, she turned back to him with a smirk and said, "Oh, you're so going to get it Uchiha Itachi!" she had said as she grabbed a handful of snow and threw it directly in his face. _**

**_Coming back from what he had just done, Itachi didn't realize that the snow had hit his face, until he felt a sudden rush of cold. He swiftly wiped the snow from his face and as he turned to see Katara's expression, she tried to stifle back a laugh. As she saw his facial expression that expressed how oblivious he was to her attack, she quickly let out a laugh. The older Uchiha watched her as she gave him a genuine laugh and smile, and at that moment, he thought she looked stunning. _**

**_As Katara finished with her laughter, she stopped to see the famous Uchiha smirk from her male counterpart and knew she was in trouble. As Itachi grabbed some snow and formed it into a sphere, he quickly said, "Now you're asking for it," in a playful manner, and chased her around the backyard, as both Uchihas enjoyed a snowball fight, that brought them back to their childhood. _**

**_End flashback. _**

_As the Uchiha came back from his own thoughts, he tried to keep his mind settled on the mission at hand, but he couldn't help but wonder how the other group was fairing. He was still concerned with the fact that he wasn't there to protect her and as that thought raced through his mind, he continued to worry. But then his mind settled down as he realized that she would be in safe hands. _

**_Flashback: _**

**_"Itachi, I see you're still upset from what happened." His brother said as he approached him in his own room. _**

**_"Sasuke, what do you want? I don't have time to deal with this; I have other matters to focus on, such as the mission." Replied the older brother as he turned to face his younger brother. _**

**_As the younger Uchiha scanned his brother's facial expression, he answered with, "She'll be safe, Itachi, I assure you that. You do not need to worry." Sasuke had said as he watched from the corner of the eye the affect of his words, allowing his brother to relax a bit. _**

**_"Sasuke, just promise me to protect her at whatever means necessary." Stated Itachi as he looked his brother directly into his eyes. _**

**_"Itachi, you have my word. I'll protect her with my life. I know how much she means to you and you forget, I care about her as well as everyone else too." Vowed the Uchiha. _**

**_"Arigatou, Sasuke." The older Uchiha said as he continued to pack for the departure. _**

**_End Flashback. _**

_The Uchiha was suddenly interrupted by his thoughts as a familiar voice broke through; "Hey, Itachi, we're almost at our location….what should we do when we get there?" asked the blue shark as everyone else also turned to hear the Uchiha's response. _

_As the second group continued move through the cold terrain of the Land of Snow, the Uchiha answered with, "We're expected to at least observe how the castle is guarded. If our information from Jiraiya is right, mostly everyone we know, is imprisoned in there." _

_"So what you're saying is, we'll just stake it out here until we gain enough information for us to invade.." stated the sand kunoichi. _

_"Precisely...but do not think this task is easy." Answered Sasori as he also joined in the conversation. _

_"Huh? What makes you say that?" questioned the Sand's puppet user as he turned towards the red-head. But as Kankorou gave his attention to the puppeteer, the Hyuuga beside him, answered in turn. "Well….first off, we have to make sure we're not caught and along with that, if we attain the wrong information, we'll get caught and imprisoned. There are high risks here in both scenarios and in either case, Kakashi's group is depending on us to accomplish this task and get more people on our side." _

_"So there's basically a lot of stake here, un." Stated the blonde artist as he too joined in the conversation. _

_"It seems like it." Replied the mist nin as they all headed towards their location. _

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**Please review, I look forward to hear what you think about the story so far. **

**thanks! **

**-katara **


	14. Chapter Thirteen: Distress

**I felt that it was necessary to update this story again! I am definitely excited to get this story started once again! So I hope this chapter turned out well. There's not really that much action here, but in the next chapter, you'll get to experience more action. I can't really tell you what happens since you have to read what happens, but just enjoy! Sorry if this chapter seems short; this is more of like a filler before moving onto the actual action and excitement that will occur later on in the story. **

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**Chapter 13: Distress**

**_'I hope the other group is alright.' Thought the Uchiha heiress _**_as a truly worried look showed on her face as she stared down at the ground as the snow crunched up from under her feet._

_As the Uchiha continued to walk behind the big group, she slowly took her time as she continued to worry; as she tightly held onto her backpack, she was too focused on her thoughts to realize that someone was walking beside her. As she broke from her daze and turned her navy orbs towards the person, the black-haired male replied with, "I thought it would be another awhile for you to notice." He teased his friend with a huge grin. _

_With a sincere smile, the Uchiha answered back with, "Gomen, Koji…I was just lost in my thoughts…you know me." _

_The Takahashi looked down at his comrade with a bit of confusion and as he continued with walk beside the Uchiha, he positioned his hands behind his head in a lazy manner, and replied, "You worry too much, Kay, everything's going to be fine," and then gave her a hug. _

_"Arigatou, Koji." The Uchiha heiress softly said as she gave him a smile to show that she was fine. _

_"No problem, Katara." The Takahashi replied back as he gave the heiress a huge smile. "And I'm sure that they're fine; you know how strong Itachi is; he won't give up without a fight." Koji had said as he saw another smile appear on his friend's face. _

_

* * *

_

_After a few more hours of traveling throughout the snow covered territory, everyone in the first group stopped by a nearby frozen river for a short break. Although they had left early, they were all well aware of the fact that there were only a few more hours of sunlight left. _

_"We'll stop here for a break." Stated the silver-haired Jounin as he addressed everyone. With a nod from each person, they stopped their traveling and decided to all rest for a bit. _

_As everyone sat down in a circle, they all took time to relax and wait for any news that might come their way. _

_"Hey, where's Kakashi sensei?" questioned the Uchiha heiress as she looked around for the silver-haired Jounin. _

_Sitting beside her was Sasuke and as everyone turned around to see where he was, the Uchiha quickly answered her question with, "He's covering our tracks. We don't want anyone to follow us at this point. He'll be back shortly." _

_"Alright, arigatou, Sasuke." Replied Katara as she sat there quietly waiting for her sensei to return to the group. As she slowly closed her eyes to intensify her other senses, her own intuition was telling her that something was wrong. Katara quickly opened her eyes and widened them in fear; as she turned towards everyone, she quickly saw a huge explosion occur in the forest behind them. _

_Everyone began to run and cover themselves from the oncoming rubble, and as the Uchiha heiress was running she caught sight of the copy cat nin and as she ran beside him, everyone else joined from behind to hear any news. _

_"It seems as though they were tracking us this whole time. I've been able to slow them down with our traps, but at this moment, we have to find a safe place to hide!" informed the Jounin as he increased his pace. Following his own actions, the others also increased their speed, but as Katara looked back to see what had become of the forest, she was saddened by the mere fact of the flames enveloping the whole area. _

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_Once coming into a clearing, the whole group looked around and wondered what type of hiding place this place serve as considering that nothing was here to even cover themselves from the enemy with. As they all looked towards their leader, Kakashi, they all watched him approach a huge boulder near the mountainside. _

_"Uhh….Kakashi-sensei, where are we?" questioned the blonde as he asked the question that everyone was thinking on their minds. _

_Within the moment Naruto had asked that question, everyone watched the silver-haired Jounin create several hand signs. As he finished with all his seals, everyone behind him quickly saw how the huge boulder was moving; within a few seconds, it revealed a hidden base within the walls of the mountains. _

_As the silver-haired nin turned around to address everyone, he said, "Well, I suppose that answers your question, Naruto. Now let's quickly enter before anyone else spots us." He had said as he swiftly made his way into the base. Everyone else followed behind him as well and as they all made it through, the boulder quickly closed and encased them in darkness. _

_"Great! Now how are we supposed to see?" exclaimed the pink-haired kunoichi as she tried to adjust her eyes to the dark. _

_"Let's calm down. I'm sure Kakashi has thought this through." Replied the red-head as he along with everyone else turned towards the nin. _

_"Actually…" he said as he rubbed the back of his head in the dark, "We'll just have to feel around. We haven't used this base in awhile, so it's pretty run-down. I just know there's a door here somewhere, we just have to find it." Answered the Jounin. _

_"Are you kidding me?!" screamed the hyperactive blonde as he pointed a finger at his sensei. _

_Everyone covered their ears as they heard the blonde continue to scream and as the Uchiha heiress tried to calm him down, Shikamaru stated, "This is troublesome." _

_Seeing that Naruto was continuing with his own ruckus, Katara ignored him and took time to look around the cave. Without even knowing that she was able to see as clearly as she could in the dark just as she could in the light, he quickly spotted the door that her sensei had mentioned earlier. _

_Katara turned around to see why everything suddenly got louder and as she watched everyone complain and arguing, she tried to get their attention. At first it didn't work as she tried with her normal volumed voice, but as she got closer and screamed, "GUYS!" she managed to get their attention. _

_As everyone looked at her, she quickly quieted down and calmly said, "Um…the doors over there," she had said as she pointed her finger toward the entrance. _

_"Katara, I don't know if you know this, but we can't really see where you're pointing." Stated the shadow-user as he and everyone else tried to see what she was seeing. _

_"What?" questioned the Uchiha heiress as she turned towards everyone with a look of confusion that no one could see but could sense in the tone of her voice. _

_The male Uchiha quickly joined in seeing the confusion in his friend's shock and explained, "Katara, seeing that you are part vampire, you have special abilities as you already know. Obviously at this point, you should've figured out that you're able to see in the dark, unlike humans." _

_"Oh, thanks, Sasuke. Well, I guess Sasuke and I should lead everyone there." Replied the heiress as she received a nod from the other Uchiha. _

_Without another word, everyone followed closely behind the heiress and the Uchiha as they followed and sense their steps. Within a few moments, everyone made it to the entrance and quickly entered into the base. _

_Looking around the whole area, everyone knew that the base needed a bit cleaning and lighting since the light was a bit more dim than normal. _

_"I guess we better get started." The blue-haired kunoichi said as she smirked and pulled out brooms and other cleaning supplies. _

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_Several hours later, everyone found the base more cozy and comfortable once everything was cleaned and renewed. Sitting down to take a rest, the Uchiha heiress let her body relax on a dining room chair in the kitchen. _

_"At least that's done now." Stated the heiress as she breathed heavily from all that cleaning. _

_Giggling, Konan answered with, "Yeah, now we just have to relax." She had said as she took a seat next to the Uchiha. In a few moments, everyone gathered around the table and waited for any news that their leader would have. Having all their attention turned towards the Jounin, he slowly sat down and got ready to tell them what was going on._

_"As you all know now, the enemy is aware that we've spilt up into two groups. They're more likely to go after our group seeing that Katara is with us. As of now, our group is too big, which makes it easier to be detected. So I'm guessing the best way to confuse our opponents would have to be dividing ourselves into two groups again." Said Kakashi as he looked around the table. _

_"I see where you're going with this, Kakashi, but they're going to catch up to us eventually. And when they do, don't you think that having fewer numbers would increase the danger of us being ambushed?" questioned the origami-user as she showed a hint of doubt in her voice. _

_"Konan, I understand your concern, but while one group distracts the enemy, the other group with Katara will have more time to move forward towards our goal." Explained the silver-haired nin. _

_"Well then, what are the groups?" questioned the Takahashi as he reduced the tension in the room. _

_"The first group will be in charge of distracting the enemy; that group will be Gaara, Shikamaru, Konan, and myself. The second group will take care of Katara and that group will be Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Koji." Replied Kakashi. _

_"So what did you take into consideration when you planned these groups?" asked Gaara as his voice showed a serious tone. _

_Turning towards the red head, Kakashi answered with, "It was simple; I basically took into consideration for example that you, Gaara, you have a powerful defense with you sand which will buy us more time. Konan and Koji both are able to quickly act as a way to contact between the two groups seeing that Konan can communicate through paper and that Koji has his summonings as well. Konan also has medical experience along with Sakura, which was why I separated them. Shikamaru's analytical mind will help us come up with different diversions and I put Sasuke in the other group seeing that he's able to think on his feet quickly, and Naruto, as for him, I knew he's as determined as anyone else here to protect her." _

_"I guess it's settled then. When do we move out, Kakashi?" asked the male Uchiha as he smirked. _

_"Early tomorrow morning." Replied the Jounin. _

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_"Itachi, I've sensed several chakra signatures that are behind us." Stated the Hyuuga as he turned off his Byakugan and turned his attention towards the Uchiha just as everyone else did. _

_"So what do we do now"" questioned the sand kunoichi as she tightly held onto her fan. _

_"They only chance we've got is to fight back. We have the resources to do so." Answered the puppeteer. _

_"I agree with Sasori; the other group is counting on us." Replied the blue shark as he took hold of his Samehada. _

_Suddenly a huge group of Sound nin burst out from the forest and quickly circled around the group. As Itachi glared at everyone that surrounded them with his Sharingan eyes, he swiftly took out a kunai knife. With his comrades facing him back to back, he quickly whispered, "We have nothing left to lose, let's go," just before launching in battle, with everyone else following his action. _

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**Please make sure to review! I always appreciate hearing what you guys think of the story! **

**Thanks!**

**-katara**


	15. Chapter Fourteen: The Meeting

**Sorry that I haven't had time to update lately, but hopefully this chapter satisfies you guys. Please keep up with the reviews! And I promise you that if you guys keep reviewing, ****I will be sure to update as fast as possible. I do have the next chapter already made up in my mind and partly typed up, but I'm withholding it until I hear what you guys think. I really do want to improve with my writing and I'd love to hear your thoughts. Thanks.**

**Now, here's the new chapter. **

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Chapter 14: The Meeting

_It seemed that this battle was never going to end; attack after attack, both sides were unable to give way to the other's attempts. Itachi realized that his comrades were slowly losing their stamina and energy, even though they continued to fight back with such strength. He too was losing his energy as well and he knew that they would have to finish this battle quickly before Orochimaru's men call for back up. _

"_Kisame, we have to hurry this up; we can't risk them calling for more shinobi to come to the area." Stated the Uchiha as he turned towards the shark. _

_As the blue shark took another swing at a Sound nin, he continued fighting as he replied with, "I know that, Itachi…" as he hit another one in the gut, "But we're trying our best to fight them off. It's basically you and I trying to hang on; the others are slowing down." _

_The Uchiha quickly dodged an axe kick that was aimed at his head and as he took hold of his opponent's foot, he threw the Sound nin directly towards the ground and stabbed him in the chest. _

_As the Uchiha looked around to see how everyone else was doing, he saw that most of them were done with their opponents. As he watched Neji, Temari, and Kankorou finish off their opponents, he saw that there were still several more of them left; he knew that he was taking a risk by using this technique, but he was willing to risk it. Itachi decided to use the full force of his Sharingan; as black flames engulfed around the area, his comrades quickly stopped their attacks and came by his side. Watching him strain his eyes, they all watched as the black flames attacked the Sound nin. The black embers engulfed everything in its path and as it approached the Sound nin, screams were heard as they lost their lives to the flames. _

_Once every one of their opponents was gone, the Uchiha quickly collapsed down onto his knees. Everyone was shocked at the condition he was in and as they all rushed to his side, the blonde artist knelt down and said, "Itachi, un, you okay?" he had questioned as he tried to help his comrade up on his feet. _

_The Uchiha breathed deeply as he was helped up onto his feet; Itachi wasn't able to answer back as quickly as he liked; he was clutching onto his head and had closed his eyes in order to calm his body down from such a forced attack. _

"_I'm fine..." the Uchiha answered as he still continued to be held up by the shark and the artist, but to everyone's surprise, he quickly blacked out. _

"_You're not fine, Itachi. You're far from it." Stated the red-head puppeteer as he came to check up on his teammate. Looking for any injuries he said, "He'll be fine, I suppose. There's nothing too serious, but he needs to rest his body, especially his eyes. He's strained them; he needs to relax for now." _

"_All right. We've been able to stop the enemy for now; it would be smart to rest and regain our strength." Said the sand kunoichi as she folded up her fan and sat down. _

"_Hold on there princess, I don't think we can rest yet." Stated Kisame as he turned towards everyone. With that, everyone's eyes were on him as he lifted his sword up and said, "Samehada has sensed some strong chakra signatures heading this way. They're some of his minions." _

"_Well that's just great! What are you going to do now?!" exclaimed the sand shinobi as he looked at everyone. "Itachi's out for now and we've basically run out of chakra. There's no way we can stand a chance against them." _

"_Well, way to think positive, un." The blonde sarcastically said. _

"_He's right, Deidara. At the current condition we're all in, we don't stand a chance." Said Temari. _

"_Well then, I think the best thing to do right now is to take Itachi somewhere else in order for him to regain his strength, while some of us stay here and fight. Those with enough energy as of now will stay here. The others need to take Itachi away and go somewhere safe." Explained Neji. _

"_That sounds reasonable." Stated the shark. "I guess I'll stay behind." _

"_I'll stay behind as well." Said the Hyuuga. _

"_I'll stay, un." Replied the blonde. _

"_Wait, Deidara, you should go with Itachi." Said Neji as he looked at the artist with his white eyes. _

"_Why is that, un?" questioned Deidara. _

"_You're the only one who is able to make those clay birds of yours. With your birds, it will make it easier to travel and get to a safe destination faster. I suggest Sasori and Kankorou to stay behind, since you two have similar fighting styles." Explained the Hyuuga. _

"_That would probably be best." Stated Sasori as he stepped forward. _

"_Fine, un." Said Deidara as he picked up an unconscious Itachi and signaled for Temari to follow him. As he quickly made the seals for his clay bird, within moments, the bird became life-sized and all three shinobi came aboard. The blonde artist quickly looked back at his teammates before leaving and with a final good-bye, the three lifted up into the air. _

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"_They're here." Stated the Hyuuga as he turned towards his comrades with his Byakugan. At that moment, several Sound nin entered into the area; the tension in the air heightened as both sides got ready for battle. _

_As one Sound nin stepped forward, looking bulky with flaming-orange hair, he said, "Looks like we'll have to get through you guys before finding the princess. Or why don't you guys just give up now and we'll spare your pitiful lives." _

"_Hn…not for a long-shot." Answered the sand nin as he summoned his two puppets. With that, Kisame, Sasori, and Neji also followed in suit as they got into their battle stances: the shark had his sword held high; the puppeteer summoned up his own puppets; and the Hyuuga with his palms ready to strike. _

"_As you wish." Said the sound nin as he signaled his men to attack them all at once. In mere seconds, an ambush of sound ninja rained upon the four remaining shinobi. Without any hesitation shown on their faces, they jumped into action, ready to give up their lives if necessary. _

_All four of them used all their attacks that were left in their arsenal. Already down from their previous fight, they gave it their all in each motion and made sure not to waste any chakra on unnecessary advances. As both puppeteers teamed up together to get rid of most of their opponents with their own poisonous weapons, the Hyuuga and the shark were their back up. _

_Coming in with a swift katana from his puppet's mouth, Kankorou controlled his puppet to head towards the sound nin's chest; narrowly avoiding a mere scrape from the poisonous weapon, his opponent quickly came at him at a rapid pace. As a last resort, the sand nin quickly pulled onto his chakra strings to stop his oncoming opponent, but as he dodged another attack, Kankorou got ready for the hit. Feeling no sudden contact, the Sand nin looked up just in time to see the Hyuuga forcibly push the enemy away with his gentle fist. _

_Looking back at the puppeteer, Neji looked at him with his Byakugan and said, "Don't worry; I've got your back." With a nod from his comrade, both shinobi continued on with their attacks._

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_Kisame quickly swung his Samehada around at his opponents as Sasori backed him up with his poisonous puppets. Stopping to take a quick breathe after his ongoing attacks, the shark quickly made the hand signs for a water-ball-based jutsu. As he leaned back and closed his mouth, within seconds, he quickly released the attack from his mouth; just a few moments ago the terrain had been completely dry dirt, but as of now, the area was almost nearly flooded with several feet of water. His comrades already anticipated his antics, but his opponents where now forced to fight on Kisame's own element. _

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"_Alright, it seems that we're done here. Let's join up with Kisame and Sasori." Stated the Hyuuga as he got up onto his feet, despite his heavy breathing. _

"_Right." Kankorou said, also taking deep breathes. _

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_Several sound nin had drowned from the attack, and believing that those shinobi were already eliminated, the blue shark searched around for any of them. Not sensing anyone, except for those nin that were using their chakra to stand on water, the shark jumped into a sprint towards his remaining opponents. As he was about to strike them, he abruptly stopped in his tracks as he noticed a familiar puppet jump in front of him. Turning around towards his comrade with a look of confusion, the puppeteer looked at him and replied "They're coming back up." Still with a confused look upon his face, Kisame finally realized what was happening once several of the supposedly disposed sound ninja came up from the water. _

"_That's impossible…"stated the mist nin as he looked towards the enemy. _

_The same bulky sound nin that had spoken before stood before him, looking as though he hadn't even died a second ago. "Hn…you think we're ordinary shinobi like you guys? Well you're wrong there; there's a reason why Orochimaru sends us out when he wants to get the job done." He had said as his eyes turned into a murderous crimson red color and looked towards his two opponents. As Neji and Kankorou approached their two comrades, they watched everything that was occurring and shock was portrayed on their faces as their eyes widened at the spectacle: every single sound shinobi in his group followed suit as their chakra levels rose as unfamiliar marks emerged on their skin; the tension in the air quickly transformed as dangerous auras emitted around them. _

_As they all stood back to back from each other, observing what was occurring right before their own eyes, they prepared for the worst possible outcome. All the sound shinobi that had survived Kisame's attack changed indefinitely: their skin was a dark mahogany, each with black, yellow eyes staring all four nin down. Before any of them could anticipate their enemy's attack, the remaining Sound nin advanced and managed to hit all four of the shinobi. All four were continously being pumbled, hit after hit, despite their attempts to dodge. It was as though the Sound nin weren't willing to give them a break and as the Hyuuga quickly reached into his pocket, he swiftly threw a smoke ball to the ground, allowing him and his comrades to escape from the area. _

_All four shinobi hid behind_ _a tree and as the Hyuuga watched their opponents carefully with his Byakugan eyes, he saw that they were all still puzzled and frustrated as they tried to find them. "Neji, what do you see?" questioned the sand nin as he turned towards the Hyuuga. As everyone waited for his response, he broke the silence with, "This isn't good; we've got more odds stacked up against us than we normally would. Those marks on those bodies are giving them more power than an ordinary human could handle. There's no way they're humans at this point; from the looks of it, they're more demonic than anything else."_

"_So theses are his Dark Knight Soldiers, huh." Stated the shark as he turned towards them with a smirk on his face. _

"_Kisame, what are you talking about?" asked Kankorou. _

"_I've heard legends before of shinobi who willingly gave up their own lives in order to gain power beyond their wildest dreams. It seems they're true; if what Neji says is right, there's no doubt in my mind that these shinobi right here are them. " Explained Kisame. _

"_Hn…I thought out odds were already bad, but this is just some luck we've gotten ourselves into." Replied the redhead. _

"_Well, the rest of them are counting on us, we can't simply abandon this."_

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"_Hey un, any luck in waking up Itachi, Temari, un?" questioned the blonde as they continued to soar through the sky. _

"_No, he's going to be out for awhile. All we can do now is hope that they're fine back there." Replied the kunoichi as he looked at the blonde artist. _

"_Hey don't worry, un," said Deidara as he turned around to put a hand on her shoulder, "Your brother will be fine, un; all of them are strong, I'm sure they'll make it through, un." _

"_Thanks." Temari said as she gave him a smile. Turning back to control his clay bird, without any warning, he quickly swerved to the left almost causing the kunoichi along with the unconscious Uchiha to fall off. _

"_Deidara! What the hell was that?!" exclaimed the blonde as she showed an obvious angered expression on her face. As soon as the blonde artist looked at her with serious eyes, Temari nodded at him and touched her fan that stood by her feet. Looking up at the sky she tried to detect who was following them. _

_As Deidara was forced to continue moving the bird in random directions, Temari spotted that the attacks were from rolled up paper bombs; each time, they managed to narrowly avoid each one, but as more and more of them started to come after them, the kunoichi was slowly panicking inside. But despite everything, she swiftly stood up and swung her giant fan in order to blow away the remaining bombs that were targeted at them. _

"_Nice job, un." Deidara said as he gave her a smirk and continued on with soaring through the sky. As both shinobi looked back to see if they were being followed, they saw a group of ninja appear right behind a white cloud. _

"_Sky ninja." Temari whispered just loud enough for the blonde artist to hear her. _

"_You're kidding me, right un?" Deidara asked as he looked all around them and saw that there were at least 10 or more of them soaring above them. _

_As the enemy nin looked at them with the intent to weaken them, Deidara tried his best to direct his clay bird, while also trying to fight back. As he slowly stood up and took out clay from his pockets, his hands quickly chewed and input chakra into his creations. Seeing the blonde kunoichi fighting them off by herself, he knew that he needed to finish the process quickly; within a few more moments, his sculptures were thrown into the sky and immediately transformed into life-size models. As more clay birds joined them in the sky, the artist ordered them to fly towards the sky shinobi. As Temari saw the reinforcements that were joining her in the fight, she silently thanked Deidara for his quick thinking. Because they didn't have that much ground to work with, Temari was only limited to staying on one of the birds in order to attack back, but with Deidara's new additions, he increased their chances of getting rid of their opponents. _

_The clay birds each moved at a swift pace and once they were a few meters away, the blonde artist quickly made the handsigns to detonate them. As explosion after explosion erupted throughout the whole area, the sand kunoichi had to quickly shield herself from the smoke. Not realizing that she had closed her eyes, Temari opened them to see that most of their enemies were gone from the sky. Looking back at her comrade, she saw that he was still busy trying to sense if anyone else was still out there; still checking the area around her, Temari quickly searched for the Uchiha that she knew was supposed to be right next to her. Almost having a heart attack, she noticed that he was no longer there; her eyes widened in shock and as she looked below them, she suddenly realized that his body was accelerating downwards. _

"_Deidara!" exclaimed the sand kunoichi as she caught his attention. Seeming a bit annoyed, the Iwa nin turned towards her and saw her panicked expression. Looking down, the artist decided to take action; stating a 'hold on tight,' before flying straight down to grab the Uchiha, Temari was holding onto the clay bird as if her life depended on it. Deidara was determined to reach Itachi's body before allowing it to fall to the ground and as he leaned forward to for better aerodynamics, he was able to catch the Uchiha on the backside of his bird. After the successful rescue, the blonde had to avoid another blow from a massive amount of kunai as he and Temari were being bombarded by the sides. More sky nin seemed to appear before them and as Deidara continued to move them away from the projectiles, he knew that their main goal was to leave without getting detected. Looking back and seeing the kunoichi secure the Uchiha's body and try to fight the enemy off as well, the artist saw how her chakra levels were dropping. He then concluded that she could only last a few more moments before she would collapse from exhaustion. __**'It's now or nothing.' **__Thought the rock nin as he grabbed another massive amount of clay from his bag. His hands quickly chewed the clay and once the process was done, the blonde artist quickly threw more than fifty small spiders in the air. _

_Temari looked at the artist with confusion, and as she slowly watched him make the handsigns to detonate his bombs, the clear thought of suicide flashed through her mind. __**'We're too close. Is he crazy? We'll get blown to bits as well.' **__Thought the kunoichi as she was scared for her life. The bombs exploded at the same time and while Temari waited for her death, she closed her eyes; but after awhile, she didn't feel any pain. Returning her gaze back to her teammate, she saw him smirk at her. _

"_Well, we lost them, un." Stated Deidara as he returned back to his calm demeanor and waiting to see how the sand kunoichi would react. _

"_Are you kidding?! You nearly got us killed!" exclaimed Temari as she glared at him. _

"_Well it worked didn't it? And plus our main goal was to get away, un. And we did." Explained the Iwa nin as he continued to look around for a safe area to land. Once spotting a clearing below, the blonde quickly lowered his clay bird and peacefully landed on the ground. _

_As Temari was thankful to have escaped from those shinobi, she still couldn't help but feel a bit angered at the blonde's rash antics. "Well, at least you could've told me what you were going to do! I seriously thought I was going to die back there!" retorted the kunoichi as she glared at him. _

_"Calm down, un. We're safe now and that's all that matters, un." stated the Iwa nin as he got off the bird and helped Temari get off as well. _

_"I suppose." Temari said as she replied with a softer tone. _

_As both shinobi got off, Deidara helped the kunoichi carry the Uchiha towards a nearby massive great oak tree. Before entering, the artist returned his life-size bird back to its original size. He then carried the Uchiha towards the tree and all three of them took shelter under the tree's roots. Temari heavily sighed as she laid her fan down and sat; taking in deep breathes, she knew she was pushing past her own limits. Looking at the blonde, she saw that he too was exhausted. Getting up, Deidara watched her as she came to set up a resting area for the Uchiha. Laying out a thin, blue blanket and a small pillow, the kunoichi contemplated how she would move the Uchiha's body. Before she could even think of an idea, the blonde artist was by her side with the Uchiha in his arms. Laying him down upon the bed, Temari silently thanked him; both nin stepped aside once they laid Itachi down. Leaning upon the walls of the tree, they both sat in silence for several long moments. _

_Unable to remain quiet, the Iwa nin broke the silence with, "We'll stay here for awhile, un. They'll probably look for us soon, so one of us will have to take watch first, un." _

_With a nod of acknowledgement, Temari was about to speak before she was interrupted; "No, un. You need your rest first. I'll take watch first. And then I'll wake you up, un." _

_A fierce look showed in the blonde's blue eyes, and once Temari's orbs looked directly at them, the sand kunoichi knew not to argue with him about the situation. She was also too exhausted to even try to argue back, so without another word, Temari remained quiet. Trying to stay awake, her body slowly shut down and as she tried to keep her eyes open, she eventually gave up, closed her eyes, and let sleep take her. _

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**Well, hope you guys liked the chapter! The next chapter will focus more on Katara and her group along with finding out what will happen to Temari, Deidara, and Itachi. Please stay tuned! And please, please review! It's that green button right there :) **

**-katara**


	16. Chapter Fifteen: Finding the Light

**Well as promised, I'm updating before my spring break! I'm excited to get this story rolling again and I hope all my readers out there enjoy this chapter. This chapter was pretty long; it took up 16 pages! So I'd have to say that this would be the longest chapter I've ever written for this story. Anyways, please please please make sure to review! Hoping to get a lot of reviews for this chapter before I release another chapter out!. **

**So now, please enjoy and make sure to tell me what you think about it! :) Arigatou!**

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**Chapter 15: Finding the Light within the Dark**

_The next day, the sun broke through the horizon, but the two shinobi were already up, ready for another day of travel. Still looking at the unconscious Uchiha, the sand kunoichi silently hoped for the best for everyone. __**'I have to believe in them, but it's just too hard.' Thought Temari. **__Her thoughts were interrupted as the blonde artist entered into their hiding place and as he came in with some food, he handed some to her. Looking curiously at the food, the blonde artist said, "You need to keep up your strength, un. More of those guys should be back soon." _

"_Arigatou." Said the sand kunoichi as she ate quickly. _

"_So has Itachi woken up yet?" asked Temari as she turned toward the blonde. _

"_No, un. He's been out like that for the whole night. He needs to wake up, un. We're going to need him if we're going up against these nin again, un." Deidara said as he calmly continued to eat some bread and drink some water. _

_Looking at him with some wonder in her eyes, Temari turned to ask, "How can you stay so calm in a situation like this?" _

"_Huh?" questioned the rock nin as he had his mouth full. Swallowing the food that he had put in his mouth, he answered, "You get used to it, un. I'm sure he'll wake up soon, un." _

_As they continued their conversation, they were alerted by a slight movement near their campsite. Both shinobi turned around to see who was making that noise and as they turned to see the Uchiha's condition, they saw that he was slowly waking up. Approaching his slightly conscious form, they saw him slowly open his obsidian eyes. _

_They were amazed at the Uchiha's fast recovering rate and as they were still stunned, they failed to realize to see that Itachi was quickly trying to pull himself up into a sitting position. Before he sat himself up, the sand kunoichi approached him and tried to force him to take it easy. "You just woke up; you shouldn't try to force things." Stated Temari as she tried to slowly push him down. _

_Resisting against her attempts, Itachi managed to get himself up onto his own two feet and replied, "I'll be fine. What's the status of our mission?" _

"_Well…not good, un." Deidara sheepishly replied as he rubbed the back of his head. "We spilt up into two groups, un because we had to get you out of there." _

"_You mean everyone else is back there fighting…is there anything else I need to know?" questioned the Uchiha as he stood before them. _

"_A couple of Sky ninja attacked us on the way here; we expect them to come back. We're glad that you're awake. We're going to need all the help we can get." Replied Temari as she picked up her fan. _

_Closing his eyes and pinching the brink of his nose to stop an oncoming headache, the Uchiha took a deep breathe and took out a small bottle. As he quickly opened the top and took out two pills, he swiftly swallowed them before answering again; seeing strange glances at him, he explained, "Blood pills." With a nod from both of them, he decided to continue with what he was going to say: "We should be prepared for them. If we want to have a fair chance of defeating them, we shouldn't try to run." _

"_What? Isn't it better to cover more ground in order to confuse them?" questioned the sand kunoichi. _

"_That would seem like a good solution, yet it's best to have the element of surprise in this type of situation. If we are prepared for them on our own territory, we decrease the odds that are against us. Remember that there are only three of us. The best solution is to prepare for an ambush." Explained Itachi. _

"_That makes sense, un. Alright then, let's do it." Deidara answered as he anticipated the upcoming battle. _

**

* * *

**

_The terrain stood still as the wind blew; not seeing any evidence that any opponent or enemy was around the area, the Sky shinobi quickly checked the area as they were ordered by their superior. As their superior stood in the middle of the clearing, within seconds, all the six remaining members of the group returned. _

"_Kameko-sama, no one is here." Stated the male black-haired Sky nin as he addressed his forest green-haired, female squad leader. _

_Looking at all her men with her contrasting lavender eyes, the Sky kunoichi replied with "There's something not right here. They should've been here. There's no mistaking it; I know they're here, Yori." With that statement, the Sky kunoichi quickly took out a kunai and managed to slash her comrade on the cheek with an intense speed that the human eye couldn't even pick up. _

_The group around her gasped in shock as they watched their relentless leader do harm on one of their own. "Kameko-sama, what are you doing?!" exclaimed a light-blue haired male as he approached her. _

"_You imbeciles! Do you not realize that this is not Yori? It's a replacement." Kameko said as her lavender eyes showed a glint of frustration as she addressed the whole group. Within a few moments, the fake Yori appeared behind the green-haired kunoichi with a kunai near her throat. The kunai was close enough to kill her, yet as her opponent held her in a tight grip, she turned to meet him with her eyes. As a poof suddenly occurred, lavender met blood red eyes as the Uchiha threateningly glared daggers at her. _

"_Hn…an Uchiha? This must be my lucky day." Kameko had said as she smirked. _

"_Give it up; one false movement and I can end your life right here, right now." Threatened Itachi as he moved the kunai closer to her throat. As the whole group of Sky shinobi stood there stunned, their squad leader remained calm as she directed her eyes at him again. _

"_You think I'm frightened by a mere threat? I've got to hand it to you, you're quite the prodigy. No one has ever been able to get this close to injuring me and you have my praise. But I'm afraid you're outnumbered. You kill me, my men will go after you. So why don't you make it easier and just give it up?" said the lavender-eyed kunoichi. _

"_Not going to happen." Stated the Uchiha as he glared at her. _

"_So be it." Replied the kunoichi. As Itachi was about to end her life, in less than five seconds, she used her own speed to free herself from his grip. Looking at him with a playful smirk on her lips, Kameko quickly took out a black katana as she faced her opponent. As her comrades surrounded the Uchiha, Itachi closely held the kunai in front of him, and relaxed his body as he closely observed all his seven opponents. Waiting for a few more moments, another poof was heard as a log replaced the space the Uchiha's body had occupied. _

"_A substitution." Stated the green-haired Sky kunoichi as she looked around to see where her opponent had gone to. _

_Without any time to realize what was going on, the squad leader quickly heard a slight noise in the forest area. Widening her eyes in shock, she quickly saw a huge amount of kunai knives and shuriken heading their way. Not even showing any fear, Kameko quickly stepped in front of her group and waved her hand through the air. As the weapons were about a few millimeters away from their initial targets, she had managed to create some sort of invisible shield that canceled out each projectile. _

_Once all the weapons were no longer a threat, the Sky kunoichi stepped forward and said, "Is this all you've got, Uchiha?" with a smirk on her face. But that smirk was quickly wiped away as a huge, powerful gust of wind hit her into an opposing tree. _

"_Kameko-sama!" the light-blue haired shinobi said as he was directly at her side. _

_As the kunoichi got up and wiped some blood from her lip, she replied with, "I'm fine, Rinji. We shouldn't underestimate them. There's more than one of them around the area. I see now…" _

"_Wha-what is it, Kameko-sama?" questioned the male as he looked at her. _

"_They've planned this ambush all along and they're hiding their whereabouts because they must still be outnumbered. Unfortunately for them, they've underestimated us as well." She had said with a smirk. _

_

* * *

_

_After a few more projectile attacks, the Sky shinobi were still in good condition. Knowing that her comrades were impatient, Kameko knew that they could only handle a few more of these silly tactics. As she closed her eyes, she gave them the signal to seek out their opponents. Within seconds, the rest of her squad disappeared from the scene. _

_After a few more moments, all six of them returned with great success. Opening her eyes again, she looked at the captives they had just retrieved. _

_With another smirk playing on her lips, she looked at all three shinobi that stood before her. "Interesting, there's only three of you. Although I must applaud you for your efforts, you really don't have a chance with us. As Sky shinobi, we can easily detect your movements before you even make them. The air around you changes after each movement you make, and being trained in the sky, we clearly know how to distinguish between the different movements." She had said as she faced all of them as her men restrained them. _

"_You underestimate us too much, Kameko." Itachi said as he gave her the famous Uchiha smirk. _

"_What are you getting at, Uchiha?" asked the kunoichi as she grabbed him by his shirt collar. _

_But within moments, without receiving an answer, she quickly let go of him as she realized clay figures take the place of all three of the shinobi. _

"_Ebisu, Kane, Michio, let go of them!" ordered the kunoichi as they threw the bodies on the ground. Before realizing what was going on, a huge explosion occurred as all three bodies of clay burst. _

_Not having enough time to create any sort of barrier, everyone, along with Kameko, took the full force of the explosion. As the trees around the area fell down one after the other, the smoke cleared after awhile. Getting up from her place, the Sky kunoichi got up on her own two feet and looked around the area to see how much destruction the explosion had caused. Seeing that two of her men were already down, she met up with the remaining four shinobi as she got them all back on her feet. _

_With fast reflexes, Kameko quickly deflected a kick to her gut with her own arms. Looking at her opponent she remained calm as she met up with Itachi and his two other comrades again. "Looks like you're the ones who underestimated us. We haven't really shown our true selves yet." _

"_What are you talking about?" questioned the Uchiha as he took out another kunai knife. _

_Turning towards all her comrades and giving them a nod, she quickly addressed the three oblivious shinobi: "You don't get it do you? We've anticipated all of this already. We were only buying time for ourselves before we could actually attack you three." _

"_Why buy time then? Isn't the point of fighting to finish your opponents off quickly?" questioned Temari as she held onto her fan more tightly. _

"_Yes, that is the point, yet you haven't really gone against a true Taiyou; my clan is known for its own jutsus that deal with the sun. Once the sun reaches it's highest point in the sky, our power is increased ten fold. And unfortunately for you three, that time is right now." She had said as s huge amount of purple chakra engulfed her body along with her other comrades. _

_As the three shinobi stood back to back from each other, each other got ready for an intense battle. Suddenly, an intense battle broke out as the five remaining Sky shinobi jumped into battle. Without being able to anticipate their speed, both Temari and Deidara were unable to attack as they kept blocking attack after attack. Although the Uchiha could keep up with the pace with his own Sharingan, he knew that his other two members couldn't keep up with the pace for a long time. As he took on their squad leader, he managed to find an opening as he landed a minor hit to her face. _

_Kameko acted as though the hit didn't even faze her as she continued with her attacks. Seeing the murderous intent behind her eyes, she quickly gathered enough chakra in her fist to create a fire-based punch. Hitting the Uchiha on his side, Itachi quickly felt the hit as it began to burn and sting his skin. Having one arm clutch onto his side, Kameko quickly took an opening and knocked him in the jaw. Feeling his body hit a tree's bark, he quickly gasped as he felt her kick him in the stomach. Hearing a slight crack, the Uchiha knew that one of his ribs was broken. _

_Once her barrage of attacks was completed, Kameko stepped back to look at her work. Seeing the Uchiha in such a weakened state caused her to smile, and as she approached him, she saw as he was coughing up blood. Picking him up by his shirt collar once more, her lavender eyes looked at his blood red ones and as they met once more, she gave him another evil smirk as she slammed his head into the tree. Before even realizing what had happened, Itachi had blacked out as a result from the blood loss and the injury to his head._

_Looking around at what was happening, Kameko saw that her comrades managed to defeat the other two shinobi in less time that was necessary for the Uchiha. _

_As one of her men approached her, he said, "Kameko-sama, what now?" He had said as he dragged the unconscious sand kunochi's body. _

"_We go back to the base. Orochimaru will be happy that we managed to capture this one." She had said as she pointed to the Uchiha. _

**

* * *

**

"_The first group will be in charge of distracting the enemy; that group will be Gaara, Shikamaru, Konan, and myself. The second group will take care of Katara and that group will be Sasuke, Naruto, Sakura, and Koji." Replied Kakashi. _

_The morning light shone through the hideout as everyone got ready to leave. As they packed everything up and got everything in order, the whole group met up at the front of the hideout. Looking back at the place with her navy orbs, Katara contemplated the upcoming trip towards her own safety; she knew what was going to come ahead and knew of the sacrifices that must be made for her safety. Although she didn't want to leave anyone behind, Katara wanted more than anything to have the power to protect everyone. And as she stood there before everyone else, she started to tear up a little. As drops of water began to fall down from her face, she desperately tried to wipe them away, but to no avail, more came out. Almost stopping from shock, Katara turned her teary eyes towards the person who had put her hands on her shoulder. Turning her head around, she saw a comforting face upon her best friend's face. Looking directly at his sky blue eyes, Katara felt secure as Naruto gave her one of his famous smiles. _

"_Arigatou, Naruto-kun." Replied the Uchiha heiress as she wiped her eyes. _

"_Hey, no problem! Don't worry about it, Katara! We'll definitely make it through this!" exclaimed the loud shinobi as he stepped back to see Katara smile. _

"_Yeah…we will." Katara said with determination. _

_Interrupting their moment, Sasuke quickly stepped in and stated, "We better move out soon. We have to leave this place before anyone comes." _

"_That's right; so come on, Naruto, Katara, let's go." Replied the pink-haired medic as she put on her backpack and stood beside the male Uchiha and the Takahashi. _

"_Come on, Kay, everything's going to be fine." Said Koji as he looked at her with his eyes and held out his hand for her to take. With a nod, the Uchiha heiress took his hand and joined the group. Looking back once again, she saw everyone else wave good-bye to them. And as she strapped on her backpack and started to walk with her group, she abruptly stopped and turned back. _

"_Katara! Hey, where are you-" Sakura started to say as she watched the Uchiha heiress run back. But with a smile on her face, the kunoichi almost teared-up as she watched Katara give their sensei a hug. _

"_That's the Katara I know; always caring." Stated Koji as he looked at the scene as well. _

"_Yep! You got that right." Naruto said as he also watched. _

_

* * *

_

_As the Uchiha heiress approached the other group, she ran with full force and tackled her old sensei to the ground. With a chuckle from the Jounin, she quickly got up and helped him up as well. _

"_Sorry, Kakashi-sensei." She said as she dusted off the snow and embraced him. As he returned the hug, he said, "It's alright; now, you better head off with the rest of them; watch out for yourself and the others." He had said as the hug ended and looked at her with pride. _

"_I'll be fine, I promise you that." Said the Uchiha heiress as she turned to run back towards her group. With one more look back, she waved good-bye. _

_

* * *

_

_Once moving out, Katara's group had been traveling through the cold terrain for at least two days now. Still in the frozen tundra, a cold breeze passed through the air as Katara clutched tightly onto her coal black jacket. _

"_We're almost there. Let's take a break." Said Sasuke as he addressed everyone. With a nod, everyone decided to sit down and relax for awhile. _

"_So from here we'll try to disguise our tracks. If there's even a slight chance that they catch up to us, we'll be outnumbered for sure." Stated Koji as they sat down quietly. _

"_Way to be optimistic, Koji." Replied the blonde shinobi as he stared at the ground. _

"_Naruto.." the heiress began as she touched his shoulder, "He's right." She said as she stared into his blue eyes; "We need to move quickly before we get ambushed or something worse may happen; he's just being realistic. And by the way, what's the plan to defeating Orochimaru? I mean there must be a reason as to why we've changed our plans out of the blue; you guys never fully explained this to me." _

_The whole group was silent as the Uchiha heiress waited for an answer. Becoming a bit impatient she sternly stared at everyone directly to see if anyone would answer. The pink haired kunoichi slightly flinched as the Uchiha turned her harsh, navy gaze towards her. "Come on, I just want to know; I think I have the right to know since I'm the one who has to do all of this. I can handle it." The kunoichi said with a sincere smile. Feeling the atmosphere change in the air, Katara turned towards all her friends and looked around trying to decipher their sad expressions. "Oh come on, it can't be that bad." Stated the heiress as she still waited for at least one of them to answer her. _

"_Katara…a few days ago, Kakashi got a letter with some news in it…" stated the Takahashi as he put a hand on her shoulder. The heiress turned her attention towards him as she waited for him to continue. _

"_What he means to say, Katara, is that there was some bad news…" replied Sakura as she couldn't bear to finish the sentence. _

"_A few days before we arrived at the base, Itachi's group was ambushed."__** 'Itachi! Oh no, I hope he's fine.' Thought the Uchiha heiress. **__Sasuke explained as he watched Katara portray sadness on her face. With a nod of her head, she signaled for the Uchiha to continue. "They were defeated and were taken to Orochimaru. That's where Kakashi's team is headed; we were assigned to protect you in order to keep you as far away from Orochimaru." _

"_I see…" replied the Uchiha heiress with a somber voice as she tried to stop the tears that were forming in her eyes from falling. But without any success they slowly fell one by one onto the cold, snow floor. Koji quickly embraced his friend and as he let her cry on his shoulder, he tried to soothe her with some words: "It's alright, Katara; Itachi will survive. He's a strong person." And then the Takahashi turned towards the other three shinobi and said, "We should start moving; we've lost time already." And as he tried to comfort his teammate, he quickly turned towards the southern direction and his eyes widened in terror. As the other three turned towards the same direction, they quickly saw an explosion occur near their location. _

"_Katara! Come on, snap out of it! We have to move!" the Takahashi said as he grabbed her hand and dragged her as they all moved. Turning quickly enough to see what happened, Katara's navy orbs widened in fear as she saw an oncoming avalanche heading towards them. All five shinobi rapidly made their way from the valley, but as everyone kept on moving, Katara clumsily tripped on a rock. Stopping in his tracks, Koji was about to go back for her when the other Uchiha stepped in; "Koji, you make sure Sakura and Naruto are okay, I'll save Katara." _

_Hesitating a bit, the Takahashi was forced to leave his friend behind, hoping that the Uchiha would be able to save her. As he turned around one more time to see Katara's frightened expression, he quickly turned away and left. _

_Sasuke quickly saw that Katara had become immobile; it seemed as though she had injured her ankle in the process and within seconds, he was quickly by her side. Taking her hand away from her injury, he quickly scanned it over and concluded that it was a slightly sprained ankle. _

"_You'll be fine, come on." The Uchiha sincerely said as he picked her up. As the Uchiha heiress was in his arms, she quickly screamed, "SASUKE! Watch out!" As the avalanche took both of them down; the Uchiha heiress was separated from his arms as the snowy current rapidly caused her to move towards a canyon. The Uchiha quickly focused chakra in the soles of his feet and as he tried his best to keep up with the current, he realized that she was moving too quickly away. As he came closer and closer to her, Katara desperately tried to reach out her hand towards him, and just as she was about to fall, Sasuke managed to catch her at the edge. As she saw him tightly grip onto the ledge of the canyon, she was relieved to know that she was safe. But as she watched his grip slowly fall due to the avalanche, she became frightened again. As the edge quickly broke off, both Uchihas headed towards the deep depths of the canyon. Sasuke held Katara close to him as they both fell; and as he tried to stay calm for her own sake, he couldn't help but still imagine Katara's scared expression in his mind. As they both continued to fall, Katara was able to calm down, but as she turned around to address the Uchiha, she quickly saw another boulder headed their way. _

_Sasuke's attention turned towards the boulder and as he realized that it would injure both of them, he quickly threw Katara out of the way while they were both in the air. As the Uchiha heiress screamed for her own life and for her friend, she quickly saw the boulder hit the Uchiha in the head. As she looked closer, she saw that he had become unconscious; she quickly leaned her body forward to catch him, and as she saw that they were almost about to hit the ground, she just hoped they would make it through. __**'I guess it's now or nothing. Let's see if all this training was put into good use.' Thought the Uchiha as she focused chakra into the palms of her hands. **__As blue chakra engulfed her hands, she quickly tried to find a surface on the side of the canyon to hang onto. With no luck yet, the Uchiha heiress still tried and about ten feet before they would've hit the ground, she was able to stop their descent. _

_Letting go of the deep breathe that she didn't know she realized she had, the Uchiha was relieved that she was able to stop both their falls. And while she looked at the unconscious Uchiha in her arms, her grip slowly started to slip. As the chip of rock broke, both Uchihas were once again heading towards the ground. Turning around to take all the impact, the Uchiha heiress landed with a hard blow. _

_As she felt the force from the impact, the other Uchiha was thrown out of her arms as his body lay near her. As Katara slowly looked at herself for any damage, she saw that her arm was slightly fractured and her ankle was definitely sprained. Trying to ignore the pain, she slowly y pushed her body up to look over the damage on the other Uchiha. As she scanned him over, she saw that the major threat would only be a concussion to his head. Ignoring the pain even more, she tried to carry his body towards a nearby cave. Using all the strength she had left, she managed to lay him down on the ground and began to see if she could heal any of his fatal injuries. As she kneeled down, she quickly used the remaining chakra to heal his head injury. Once that was done, the Uchiha heiress quickly made a fire and silently sat around it by herself. As she hugged her knees towards her body, she turned towards her friend and was busy contemplating what to do next. __**'Sasuke, please wake up soon. I don't know what to do.' Thought Katara as she desperately wished he heard her pleas. **__And before she let the darkness take over her, she quickly took out two blood pills and swallowed them. Within moments, she started seeing black spots as she let unconsciousness take over her. _

**

* * *

**

_Waking up, the Uchiha heiress quickly got up; but that was a bad idea because as soon as she sat up, she felt the major pain that her injuries inflicted upon her. Trying to hold back a scream, she looked herself over. Seeing that overnight the natural healing abilities of her vampire blood was able to heal most of the damage, some of it needed more assistance. Seeing that some of her chakra was back, she quickly tried her best to heal her ankle and arm to the best of her abilities. _

_Once finished, Katara quickly looked around her shelter; seeing that Sasuke was still unconscious, she quickly took out a kunai and was getting prepared for any oncoming nin. Knowing that it was a bad idea to sleep when no one was taking watch, the Uchiha decided that she needed to stay awake throughout the whole day. So as she tried to shake the sleepiness from her eyes, she quickly closed her eyes and tried to feel for any nearby chakra signatures. Not sensing anything, she quickly relaxed her senses, but still stayed alert. _

_**

* * *

**_

_After a few more hours of being fully alert, the Uchiha heiress was still tired from yesterday's events. But as she continued to fight against her own body's desire for sleep, she resiliently kept her eyes open. Hearing a snap of a branch near the area, Katara quickly took out a kunai knife as she looked around the area. Seeing nothing, the Uchiha quickly relaxed, but as she looked over at the same direction again, she saw that there were three figures in the distance. Hoping to Kami that they were her other friends, her hopes were crushed as her vampire senses picked up unfamiliar presences. _

_Standing up on her own two feet, Katara tried to disguise her fear, and as she stepped forward with a kunai in her hand, she got ready for the oncoming battle. As she looked at her three opponents, she realized that they were definitely Sound shinobi from their headbands. Taking a second glance at her opponents again, she saw that there were two males and one female; one of the males was heavily wrapped in bandages, as if he was a mummy, while the other had spiky hair; their female comrade has long black hair with a look of disgust on her face. The Uchiha heiress was too focused on their appearances that she slightly flinched when she saw them approach her. _

"_So this is the Uchiha brat that Orochimaru wants, huh?" replied the spike haired male. _

"_It looks like it, Zaku" answered the other male. _

"_Well then, what are we waiting for?" questioned the female member as she took out a kunai knife. "This should be easy." _

_Katara quickly got into a shaky battle stance as she tried to calm down. As she held the kunai close to her body, she got ready for their attacks; as a strong gust of wind headed her way, she just narrowly avoided it by sending chakra to her feet. Hiding behind a tree, the Uchiha tried to think of a good battle plan. __**'Alright, so that guy known as Zaku uses his hands to create gusts of wind. Well, just great; there's no way I can counter attack that. Those other two, I have no idea what they can do, but it seems like they're letting Zaku do most of the work. I think I might have a plan in mind.' Thought Katara as a small smirk played her lips. **_

_Leaving her hiding place, Katara quickly attacked from behind; with a kunai in hand, she made an attempt to injure her opponent while his back was turned to her. As the heiress was about to make contact, her opponent quickly got his arms ready to blow another gust of wind. Anticipating the same attack, Katara swiftly moved out of the way to avoid another blow; __**'One, two, and three…' thought Katara as she waited for her attack to take affect. 'Boom.'**_

_Soon, a huge explosion occurred throughout the snowy terrain and as the smoke began to clear, Katara nearly crouched down near the ground to sense any of her opponents' chakra signatures. Getting back up quickly, the Uchiha heiress narrowly avoided a kick to her gut as she looked up and saw Zaku. Looking at the murderous look in his eyes, she knew to be cautious. Jumping out of the way, Katara landed upon her feet and turned to face her opponent again; getting another kunai out from her holster, her opponent quickly snuck up from behind and knocked the kunai from her grasp. Turning around to give him a punch, she mistakenly took the bait and was drawn into his attack. As a powerful gust of wind hit her head on, she felt her back quickly hit the hard, wooden tree bark. Picking up her body from the ground, she shakingly got up and wiped off some blood that was coming from her mouth. As she desperately tried to get out another kunai from her pouch, she failed to realize the unbeknownst presence behind her. Feeling someone tug on her long, braided hair, the Uchiha heiress turned quickly enough to see that their female member was holding her down. As Katara felt a kick to the gut, her body slowly fell to the ground; she managed to pick herself up, but as she was pitifully coughing up blood, the three Sound nin took no pity on her as they seemed to laugh at her pain. Pushing her body into a sitting position as she clutched onto her side, she was still restrained by her hair as she tried to get out. The female kunoichi was tightly holding onto the Uchiha's head and as much as the heiress tried to get out of her grip, the Sound kunoichi only held on tighter. _

"_There's no point in trying to get out, you might as well give up now and we'll take you directly to Orochimaru without anymore injuries." The kunoichi said as she smirked. _

_The other two men looked at their captive waiting for the Uchiha's response; to Katara, it felt as though time was moving slowly because she thought through all the different choices she had in this situation. __**'Do I really have a choice right now? I don't want them to find out that Sasuke is still unconscious. I'm the only person that they should deal with.' Thought Katara as she looked towards both males and was ready to give them her answer. **_

"_I-I refuse." Stated the Uchiha heiress. _

"_Do you realize what you just said, brat?" asked Zaku. "You just asked for your own death wish because we won't go easy on you now." He smirked as he got ready for another attack. _

"_Wait, Zaku…" said the female as she looked towards the cave. _

"_What is it, Kin?" asked her teammate. _

"_I say just to mess with her, we go after her teammate over there." Kin said with a devious look in her eyes. At this statement, Katara's navy orbs widened in fear as she was quickly panicking on the inside. As she looked towards the female kunoichi with her look of fear, the heiress felt the Sound kunoichi's grin turn bigger. As Katara looked back to see what Zaku's response would be, she quickly regretted it as she saw him step closer and closer to Sasuke's unconscious form. _

"_Yeah, why not…that sounds like a good idea." Replied the wind-user._

_As if there was one last hope left, the Uchiha heiress looked towards their third member, hoping that his voice of reason would break through; but to her misfortune, he stood there as if it didn't matter to him. _

_Turning her attention back to Zaku, she clenched her fists together, almost causing them to turn red, and managed to say with a steady, strong voice, "Don't, don't you dare go near him." She had said as she tried to get up again. But as quickly as she tried, Kin pulled her back and said, "Don't even try it. Some heiress you are, you can't even protect yourself. Don't worry though, we'll be done with your friend quickly, and then we can head off to Orochimaru." _

_With those words, Katara stopped her struggling as she gave into defeat. Hanging her head down low, the Uchiha heiress couldn't help the tears that were flowing down from her eyes. Not even trying to hide them from her opponents, she couldn't help it as so many thoughts flooded through her head. _

_In her mind: _

'_**I'm sorry, Sasuke. I'm sorry that I'm too weak to even save you even when you need me the most. Your life is in my hands, but look at me, I can't even save you. What kind of hero am I? I'm always there in the background waiting to be saved by someone like I'm a damsel in distress. I can't do anything right! I'm sorry, I'm so sorry. I've let everyone down. You've saved me countless times, and yet this one time, this one time, when you need me the most, I back down because I'm too afraid. I'm too afraid to stand up to them…'thought Katara as she continued to shed more tears. **_

'_Katara!' screamed an inner voice. _

'_Who, who is that?' questioned the Uchiha as she looked around in her mind, but quickly saw her best friend, Uzumaki Naruto. 'Naruto! Thank goodness! I need your help right now, please! Sasuke's in trouble! We need to help him!' She said as she desperately grabbed his arm and tried to drag him. But as he stood in place, the Uchiha heiress turned towards him with a questionable look. _

'_Kay…I'm sorry, but I can't help you. You need to do this on your own.' Replied the blonde as he gave her his famous smile. _

'_Naruto, you don't understand, I can't, I can't do this on my own. Sasuke's going to die and it'll be my entire fault.' Retorted the Uchiha as she tried to pull at the blonde again. _

_Without even moving, Naruto quickly said, 'You're wrong, Katara. You have what it takes to save him; don't let those three shinobi put you down. You've improved so much and you have what it takes. Don't you dare doubt yourself!' He had said as he slammed his fist on the ground. 'Don't stop believing! Because when you do that, how will others believe in yourself. You're not one to be a quitter, Katara, and I'm not going to let you start now!' _

_As Katara met Naruto's serious blue eyes, she replied with, 'You're right, Naruto. You're absolutely right. I have what it takes.' The Uchiha heiress said as new fire burned within her as she stood up straight. 'I'm going to go for it!' _

_Outside of her mind: _

_As Katara finished her own revelation, she quickly stopped her tears and decided to take action. She quickly looked around the area to see what she could use; although she had no weapons on her, she quickly came up with an idea. Looking at the snow under her body, she discreetly grabbed some in her palm and turned to look at the Sound kunoichi. With a flick of her wrist, the Uchiha heiress threw the snow directly in her opponent's face. As Kin was recovering from the shock, Katara quickly took advantage of the moment and landed an axe kick on her side to free herself from the kunoichi's iron grip. _

_Once free, the heiress launched herself in such a fast speed that allowed her to put her body before Sasuke's unconscious form as Zaku was about 10 feet away. As Katara stood before him, with her arms forward, ready to strike, she quickly activated her Sharingan. Looking at him with blood red eyes, she quickly licked her lips and fangs in anticipation as she watched him slowly circle around her. _

"_Guess you're not moving out of the way, huh? Well, Orochimaru did want to bring you back alive, but I'm sure he wouldn't mind a few injuries!" he had exclaimed as he blew another large gust of wind. _

_Within seconds before the attack, the Uchiha heiress managed to get Sasuke and herself out of the area. As she hid his body under a bush, she quickly jumped out from her hiding spot and approached her opponent. Coming at a much faster rate than Zaku had believed was possible from her, she swiftly delivered a chakra filled punch into his gut. As his body was moving throughout the air, she quickly came even faster, with several punches that eventually caused his body to hit the opposing sides of the canyon. _

_As the dust from the powerful attack cleared away, a huge crater could be seen on the side of the canyon. Putting her palms up as she prepared for her opponent to get back on his feet, the Uchiha heiress looked at him as he approached her again. With a more angry expression upon his face, Katara saw that he was gathering a lot of chakra in his system for a strong attack. _

_Concentrating her own chakra in her palms, she quickly slammed one of her fists on the ground, causing a huge earthquake to occur. Taking advantage of her opponent's unbalanced state, she quickly ran with fast speed; once reaching her opponent, she rapidly disappeared and reappeared from behind. Hitting him directly on his cheek, she followed up with another kick that sent him towards the ground. _

_As she watched his body hit the ground, Katara managed to narrowly avoid a kick to her body as she looked up in time to see that the male with the bandages was coming to his comrade's rescue. The force of the kick forced her to give up some ground as she landed on her bottom onto the snow. Getting up from her position, she was ready to fight both shinobi is she needed to. Avoiding senbon that were also coming her way, she saw that their female member was on her right. The Uchiha heiress quickly figured out that she was surrounded and as she looked at each Sound nin with her Sharingan eyes, she cautiously watched them as all three of them circled around her own form. _

"_Looks like you're surrounded." Stated Dosu. "Why don't you give up now before I actually have to be involved in this?" _

_Smirking at him, Katara replied with, "I don't think so." She said as she threw a few shuriken at him. Before they even hit him, the Sound nin canceled them out with a metal plate that seemed to be attached to his arm. Looking more closely at the armament, Katara realized that there was more to this object than it appeared to be. _

_As she prepared for the worst case scenario, she quickly blocked a punch from him. Katara continued to block advance after advance, but soon enough, she quickly stopped her own body as she let out a painful cry from her lips as she clutched onto one of her ears. Kneeling down, she tried to block off the pain by clutching onto her right ear. _

"_There's no point in even trying that. Once that sound gets in your ear, it can't get out." Explained Dosu as he towered over her. _

_All three Sound nin seemed to take enjoyment in her pain, and as she continued to try stopping the pain, she couldn't help it as her body hit the ground. Trying to get up, her body wouldn't respond to her as it was still dealing with the pain from the sound attack. The other two shinobi quickly came to their leader's side and as they all stood above her, they all prepared to land a final hit. _

"_Let's end this." Stated the bandaged Sound nin as he raised his arm up for another attack. As they all got closer and closer to her form, the Uchiha quickly moved one of her arms up and concentrated her chakra again. Within moments, at least ten clay spiders appeared in the area and came towards the feet of her opponents. Taking one more good look at how shocked each of the Sound nin were, the Uchiha had a smirk on her lips, and as she silently whispered 'Katsu,' several explosions were set off. _

_Closing her eyes to protect them from the dust from the explosion, she managed to buy enough time from the explosion to heal her ear. Once the pain was gone, she steadily got onto her feet and opened her eyes to see what had happened. Seeing that her opponents were still shakingly standing, all three nin quickly were heading towards her. Picking up what few weapons she had left from the ground, she quickly tied several wires onto each weapon. __**'I'm hoping this works.' Thought the Uchiha as they were about 5 meters from her. **_

_Quickly throwing each weapon at her opponents, they all avoided each projectile just like she had predicted. Not noticing until they were actually trapped, all three Sound nin found themselves restrained on the canyon's wall. Stepping forward to face her opponents, Katara swiftly crouched low as she took upon a wider stance. Making several quick hand signs, she quickly took a deep intake of breath. Within her own body, she was quickly transforming it into fire. As she leaned back a bit, she rapidly opened her mouth to allow the dragon-shaped fire to escape from her lips. As the hot flames made contact with her enemies, she heard them all scream for their lives. As the fire died out seconds later, Katara took a deep breath as she clutched onto both her knees. Once recovering from such a powerful attack, Katara knew that she was nearing her limit. So once seeing that her opponents were down for good, she couldn't help but letting out a sigh of relief as she stood straight up. _

_Feeling as though she would collapse any moment now, she was surprised to look up and see a familiar body hold her up. Looking back at onyx orbs, the Uchiha heiress gave a tired smile as she saw that the other Uchiha had woken up. _

"_How long have you been awake, Sasuke?" questioned Katara as she looked at him. _

"_I only woke up a few minutes ago." Answered the male as he continued to help her onto her feet and allow her to lean her body onto him._

"_And you didn't bother to step in…" stated the heiress as she gave him a smirk. _

"_Well, it didn't seem like you needed my help." Stated the Uchiha as he gave her a smirk in return. _

"_Arigatou…I think I can stand on my own." Replied Katara as she tried to move her body; yet despite all her efforts, her body was too tired to respond. _

"_I don't think so. Katara, it's over, you can rest now." Sasuke said as he was giving her a piggyback ride. _

_Taking another sigh of relief, the Uchiha heiress replied with, "Thank goodness!" She had said as the male chuckled at her statement. Katara knew that she could no longer stay awake and as she felt the Uchiha slowly carry her throughout the terrain, she couldn't help but get comfortable and let her eyes slowly close. _

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**Make sure to review! Until next time, I hope you guys enjoyed this chapter! **

**Arigatou! **

**Ja ne! **

**-katara**


	17. Chapter Sixteen: Revelations

**Well I just felt that I should update and I got really into this story so I'm a couple chapters ahead. I definitely know which direction I'm going to take this story, so I can't wait to continue writing. **

**Bold = thoughts **

Regular = dream

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**Chapter 16: Revelations**

_Opening her navy orbs to the light, the Uchiha heiress looked around the area as both Uchihas continued to move. Katara realized that they both were out of the canyon and as Sasuke continued to carry her, she also realized that their other friends were no where to be seen. _

_Sensing her worried state, the male Uchiha was quick to say, "Don't worry about it, Katara, I have a feeling I know where they are." He had said as he rapidly ran towards a nearby cave. As both Uchihas approached the shelter, Katara quickly looked in and was shocked to find the rest of her group there. Rushing off of Sasuke's grasp, the Uchiha heiress quickly ran towards the three shinobi and was quick to tackle them down and embrace them. _

"_Katara, we're glad you're safe." Said Koji as she released all three of them from her grasp. _

"_What happened to you?" questioned the blonde as he pointed at her disarrayed appearance and several scratches that she had attained from her previous battle. _

_As Katara was about to respond, Sasuke was quick to jump in and replied with, "We ran into a bit of trouble on the way and while I was unconscious, Katara managed to defeat three strong Sound shinobi." He had said as he gave her a pat on the back along with a sincere Uchiha smile. _

_Smiling back at him, Katara felt proud that someone as strong as Sasuke was acknowledging her strength and as she was about to thank him for his kind gesture, Naruto interrupted and said, "That's amazing! I knew you could do it!" _

"_I'm proud of you, Katara." Said Koji as he came forward and gave his friend a huge hug. _

"_Thank you, Koji. Thank you everyone for believing in me. I'm just thankful that everyone's still safe." Katara said as she gave everyone a big hug to show how much she missed everyone. _

"_So where do we go from here?" questioned the pink-haired medic as everyone turned towards Sasuke to hear the next part of their plan. _

_Addressing everyone, the male Uchiha replied with, "We need to head to a nearby base that's somewhere around the area, from there, we'll figure out what we have to do next." _

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"_I'm glad you're awake now, Itachi." Stated Kabuto as he stood before the Uchiha's cell. As Itachi was restrained by several chakra-absorbing chains, the Uchiha male remained where he was at until the medic and several other Sound nin removed him from the wall and forcefully dragged him to another room. _

_The new room was just as gloomy as his jail cell, and as the Uchiha scanned the entire room, Itachi knew what was to come next. Seeing several other Sound nin strap him in a chair, the male waited patiently to see how everything was going to play out. _

_The grey-haired medic stood before him, and as his onyx eyes met with the medic's, Kabuto was quick to ask the first question: "So Itachi, under the orders of Orochimaru, you're considered a traitor to the kingdom. But he is giving you a chance to repent if you're willing to tell us where the girl is. So where is she, Itachi?" _

_Glaring daggers at him, the Uchiha refused to answer the question, and quickly retorted with, "You can tell Orochimaru that I'd rather be a traitor than give him any information." _

"_Why do you Uchihas have to be so stubborn? Fine, you're making it harder for yourself." Kabuto said as he smirked and snapped his fingers. Within moments, several Sound nin entered the room and as they all took out some kunai knives, the medic slowly stepped back and watched the physical torture begin. _

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_Glad to be indoors, the Uchiha heiress quickly took off her jacket as she welcomed the warm air hit her skin. Looking around the abandoned base, she was glad that at least it was cleaner than the last one and as she sat down in a chair, she let out a huge sigh that she didn't know she was holding in. _

_The four other shinobi joined her as they all sat around the table. Everyone seemed tired and as a calm air of silence spread throughout the atmosphere, Katara was quick to leave her seat. As she tried to do it as quietly as possible, the heiress felt everyone's eyes on her and as Katara turned around, she sheepishly said, "I'm going to go to sleep." _

_Everyone quickly nodded, but before the Uchiha completely left the room, Sakura was quick to say, "Wait Katara! Let me change your bandages before you go to bed." With a nod as a response, the Uchiha heiress returned to her seat as she waited for the pink-haired medic to get out new bandages. _

_As Katara held out both her hands for Sakura to unwrap the old bandages from her arms, the heiress hissed in pain as she felt the kunoichi apply the ointment to fight against infection. Once that was done, the medic quickly wrapped her arms in new bandages and after everything was done, the medic quickly cleaned up and allowed the heiress to leave from the area. _

"_Good night you guys!" exclaimed Katara as she was slowly leaving to find a bedroom. As she heard the others say 'goodnight,' a smile appeared on her face as she was glad that everyone was safe. Another sigh of relief escaped the Uchiha's lips as she finally found a bed and without any hesitation, she was quick to throw her body on the comfortable bed. Within a few minutes, she quickly closed her navy orbs and drifted off into a deep sleep. _

_Dream: _

Looking around where she was standing, Katara found herself in front of an old and ancient looking ruin that stood before her. Its massive size was intimidating, but as the heiress looked around the whole area, she was surprised to find a person in front of her. Looking at the young man in front of her, Katara widened her eyes in shock as she realized who it was; it was her twin brother, Haku.

Running towards him, she was quick to embrace and feel him hug back; looking back up at him, she couldn't believe that it was really him. "Haku! Yo-you're here! I-I can't believe it!"

Hearing him chuckle, Katara gave her brother a huge smile; "Yeah Kay, I am, but I'm here to show you something. It deals with our old family history; it's something that you need to know."

Looking up at her brother with confusion written all over her face, Katara said, "What do you mean?" But with that, the older Uchiha quickly grabbed his little sister's hand as he dragged her towards the ruin. While being dragged, Katara looked around the area and tried to figure out where she was. She saw that there were several lush plants and tropical flowers that seemed foreign to her.

Looking towards her brother, Katara realized that he had stopped in front of the entrance. Seeing the place up close, the heiress saw several unknown symbols that she didn't recognize. Turning towards her brother, Katara was about to ask him a question, before he quickly interrupted her; "We're in the place with no darkness, Katara. These symbols you see on the door, is an ancient language that was created by our ancestors. You can only decipher it by turning on your Sharingan. Not many people know where this place is, but I'm sure with your smart mind, you can figure it out." He had said as he smirked at her.

Both Uchihas quickly turned on their bloodline limits and within seconds, the symbols on the entrance made sense to her. Looking at them again, Katara saw that it instructed them how to get into the tomb. Looking at her brother with her navy orbs, both siblings nodded at each other. Both stepped back a few feet, and as they rapidly made the hand seals for the same fire style technique, both of them leaned back, concentrated their chakra in their bodies, and instantaneously, they released the fiery fire from their mouths. As both embers passed through two paths on the door, within moments, the heavy, stoned door opened, allowing them entrance.

Katara was shocked to see that the whole entire tomb was definitely bigger than it seemed. A small hole from a sky light managed to lighten the whole entire place and as she tried to walk around the whole place, Haku was quick to stop her as he looked at her with serious, navy orbs. "Kay, be careful. There are several old traps in this place. Now come on, I'll lead the way." He had said as he stealthily moved from one place to the other.

Following her brother's lead, Katara stuck close to him, but as she made a misstep, her brother quickly pushed her towards the ground. Within moments, several amounts of kunai and shuriken were close to hitting them as they were thrown out from both directions from the walls. Once the trap was over, both Uchihas got up on their feet; as they both dusted off their clothes, Haku glared at his sister and quickly said, "Didn't I tell you to be careful, Kay?" He had said as he turned around to hear her response.

Seeing how her brother was a bit frustrated with her, Katara replied with, "Gomen, Haku-nii-san."

Looking at her with a softer gaze, Haku placed his hand on her shoulder and responded with a softer tone; "It's alright; just watch where you're going, Katara. Trouble always seems to follow you for some reason."

And with that they quickly moved throughout the rest of the tomb; their journey proved to go smoothly and as they moved throughout the different pathways, Katara was afraid that they both would be lost. But knowing her brother, she had all her trust put into him, and as she continued to follow him, she failed to realize that he had abruptly stopped in his own tracks. Bumping into him, Katara was about to yell at her brother, but looking at what was in front of her, she quickly covered her mouth with her hands. In front of both Uchihas was a canyon with several sharp rocks that lay at the bottom. Looking down even further, Katara noticed several skulls at the bottom and as she took in a huge gulp, she quickly looked at her brother to see what they would do next.

Haku was looking ahead and as he quickly spotted a bridge on the left, he quickly took his sister's arm and dragged her towards the bridge. Examining the bridge, he realized that it wasn't the safest bridge to walk across, but it was the only way to get across. Letting out a sigh, Haku turned towards his sister and said, "Katara, we need to go across this bridge to get to the next step. I know it may not be the most stable thing out there, but don't think about it; just focus on getting to the other side. Can you do that?" Her brother had asked as he held her shoulders in place and looked at her with his navy orbs.

"I-I'll try, Haku." Katara replied as she and her brother went on the bridge, one behind the other. Katara was the one in front and as Haku joined behind her, they both slowly walked across the bridge, trying to be careful as to not destroy anything. On her next step, Katara used too much force and as her foot was stuck in one of the wooden floor boards of the bridge, she quickly yanked it out. As her brother turned towards her to see what had happened, both Uchihas widened their eyes as they heard the ropes behind them slowly snap off the side.

As both Uchihas held onto the remaining bridge, the bridge swung as it became liberated from one side of the canyon. Both siblings held onto the sides of the bridge until it stopped and was parallel to the other side. As Katara tried to keep her grip, she slowly felt herself slipping and as she looked down to see how her brother was doing, she saw that he was about to slip as well. Trying to get a good grip on the piece of rope she was holding on, Katara quickly focused chakra inside her feet and as she almost watched her brother fall, she was quick to grab his hands as her chakra-filled feet held her in place.

Seeing that look of relief in her brother's eyes, Katara returned it with a smile that quickly turned to shock as she saw the canyon below her quickly fill with hot, boiling lava. Haku, seeing her concern, turned to see that the lava was filling up quickly, and as he watched his sister quickly panic, he broke through her thoughts as he yelled out, "Katara, use your legs and climb up to the other side." Looking at her brother, Katara gave him a nod, and calling upon as much strength as possible, she continued carrying her brother on her back, and quickly focused on getting to the top of the canyon. Quickly running on the side of the canyon, both Uchihas managed to make it to the top; just as the lava was about to reach them, they both got onto their own two feet and ran into another pathway of the ruin.

Once they managed to close the door as quickly as possible, both Uchihas took deep breaths before returning to their calm nature. Looking at each other, they were both grateful that they made it out alive.

Once on a new pathway, Haku quickly led her into another large room. Looking around the area, Katara was shocked to see that the place was the biggest part of the tomb. She saw that they stood on the lower level and as she looked at the place, she saw that there was a huge staircase in the middle of the area. At the top she saw that there was a red glow coming from whatever was up there.

As she was about to ask her brother what was up there, he was quick to say, "Come on, this is where our journey ends." He had said as he took her hand and they both swiftly made their way up the steps and finally made it to the top.

Widening her eyes in shock, Katara was surprised to see a bright, glowing crimson red crystal lying on a large stone tablet. Taking a closer look, she was stunned at how beautiful it was. Looking at it, her brother nodded at her and allowed her to take it out from the tablet. Having it in her hands, Katara was even more amazed at it. Her train of thought was quickly broken as Haku interrupted with, "That's the rare crimson crystal that we're supposed to guard. It's a very powerful weapon that if put in the wrong hands, could lead to destruction."

Navy met navy and as Katara turned her attention towards her brother, she replied with, "What does this have to do with me though, Haku?"

Looking at his sister, Haku answered with, "This crystal is what Orochimaru is looking for. If he is able to get this, then everything is over. It's your job to keep it out of his hands. This crystal was what created the land where the Uchiha Kingdom stands and it holds other special powers as well. You cannot let him get this."

"So my job is to protect this? But why is it that Orochimaru is after me?" asked Katara as her curiosity continued to get the best of her.

Sighing, her brother replied with, "He knows you're the only obstacle that stands in his way. You threaten his power; he knows that if everyone else discovers that you're alive, then everyone will regain that hope that he had crushed. You're the only one that's capable of finding and using this crystal, which was why the Royal Family was given the responsibility to protect it."

"Well that doesn't sound too hard. I guess I can do that." Stated the heiress as she looked at the crystal again.

"It's not as easy as you may think, Katara. Just make sure to never give it to him… I have to go now." Haku said as his form slowly began to disappear.

Katara desperately reached out to him, and as she screamed out his name, she exclaimed, "Wait! Haku! Don't leave! I don't want to be alone!" And as she watched her brother disappear right before her eyes, she heard a mere whisper of "You're never alone, Katara."

_Dream end. _

"_HAKU!" screamed the Uchiha as she woke up from her dream. Looking around the room, she realized that it was all just a dream, but trying to gather her thoughts, the heiress felt as though that everything that had occurred had felt real. Getting up from the bed, Katara quickly entered the bathroom and quickly splashed cold water on her face. Trying to figure out if all of that was real or not, the Uchiha quickly left her room and began to walk around the base, looking for anyone that would be up in the early morning. Trying to maneuver her way throughout the base, Katara tried to check each room. In one room, she saw that her blonde best friend was out like a light and as Katara watched him snore away, she couldn't help giggle at how cute he looked like while he slept. Quietly closing the door, the heiress was quick to move to the next room. Slowly opening it, Katara was surprised to see both Sasuke and Sakura sleeping in the same bed as each other. Containing a gasp inside her, Katara was content to see that they both seemed safe in each other's arms. Having an idea come into her mind, Katara let s smirk appear on her face, as she thought, __**'Well, this is definitely something to keep in mind, while I blackmail Sasuke.' **_

_After closing the door once again, Katara was about to check the other bedroom for her other teammate, but as she heard some noises of pots and pans coming from the kitchen, Katara rushed downstairs and saw that Koji was up, and was attempting to make breakfast. _

_Laughing at his attempts to make a good meal, the Takahashi turned towards her and chuckled a bit as well. "You know Koji, you're a horrible cook, so why bother?" _

"_Just trying new things. Could you make me something, Katara? I'm starved." Sheepishly replied the male as he looked towards his friend. _

"_Yeah, yeah I'll make you some eggs." Said Katara as she entered the kitchen. _

_Within minutes, Katara managed to make enough food for both shinobi and as they both took their seats at the table, there remained a moment of silence as they both ate their food. _

_Koji was quick to break the silence as he said, "So why are you awake at this hour? It's pretty early and I thought you looked extremely tired, so I thought you'd be sleeping still." _

"_Well, I just had this dream, and it just felt so real, Koji." Replied the heiress as she continued to eat. As she quickly finished, the heiress took out two more blood pills and dumped them both into a glass of water. As the pills began to dissolve, they both turned the water a red color, looking as though it was real blood. _

_As Koji watching his teammate gulp the whole glass down, he couldn't help but feel disgusted at how she drank that so easily. "Katara, how do you put up with that? I mean I know you're new to this whole ting, and you've probably gotten used to it, but that's still gross." _

_Looking at him as if it were nothing, Katara replied with, "It's not that bad; it's better than killing someone or something to get the necessary blood that I need everyday to become strong." The Uchiha said as she smirked at him. _

"_O-okay, so back to what you were saying, about this dream?" the Takahashi said as he changed the subject. _

"_I-it just felt as thought it was real; I don't know, Koji. It felt as though my dream was telling me something." Answered the Uchiha. _

_Looking at his teammate, Koji realized that this dream definitely had some effect on his friend. And as he looked at her with his eyes again, he saw that she was uncomfortable about it; but before asking any questions, he let her continue with her explanation. _

"_I dreamt about my brother, Haku, taking me to this place where a crimson crystal was hidden. In the dream…he told me that I needed to keep it out of Orochimaru's reach." _

"_I see. Seems simple enough." Stated the male as he finished with his breakfast and was currently drinking some orange juice. _

"_You mean you believe it, Koji?" asked the Uchiha heiress as she looked at him. _

_Putting his cup down on the table, Koji looked at the Uchiha and replied with, "I mean sure; Katara, dreams like this don't occur for no reason. And in your case, seeing that you get these visions of the future and stuff, I wouldn't put it past you." _

"_So that's where we'll go." Stated a familiar voice as both Koji and Katara looked to see Sasuke in front of them along with Sakura and Naruto. _

_As everyone took seats around the table, they all ate breakfast as everyone discussed the plans for their upcoming journey. _

"_So Katara any idea where that place is?" questioned the pink-haired kunoichi as she took a bite out of some toast. _

"_Well in my dream, Haku said that it was located in the place with no darkness." Answered Katara as she took a sip out of her cup. _

"_Well that totally helps!" Naruto sarcastically exclaimed as he continued eating. "I mean the only place I know that never gets dark is Taiyoumura." _

"_Wait, what did you say, Naruto?" asked the heiress as she looked her friend again. _

"_Huh, about what?" said the blonde as he still had just swallowed a mouthful of food. _

"_You mentioned a village that had no darkness in it." Stated the Uchiha as she and everyone else waited for his reply. _

"_Oh, Taiyoumura? It's not really a village anymore; I remember Iruka-sensei telling me that it was destroyed centuries ago, but the ruins are still there. Problem is, no one's really been able to find it; only a few people know where it is." Answered the hyper-active shinobi. _

"_Amazing that that's the only thing that you've paid attention to in class, Naruto." Said Sakura as she was surprised he remembered something like that. _

"_Enough teasing, Sakura; it's all good now. At least we have a lead to where we need to go; the only probably is, we have no idea where this place is located." Stated Koji as he leaned back in his chair. _

"_Well, I know where it is." Said Sasuke as he addressed everyone. "But you're not going to like it. It's close to the Uchiha Kingdom, where Orochimaru is." _

_Everyone around the table took in a big gulp as they heard where their destination was located. Katara almost felt a shiver of fear past through her and as she turned to look at everyone in the room, she saw that everyone else was considering if it was worth the risk to travel there._

"_So we have to make a decision now. Are we willing to take that risk?" asked the pink-haired kunoichi as she looked around the table with her emerald orbs. _

"_I don't know, it's a tough call." Replied Sasuke as he was deeply contemplating what they should do next. _

_Katara abruptly stood up from the table and as she looked at all of them, she replied with, "Well, my gut is telling me that we should go. I mean, I'm going to have to face this guy sooner of later; it's inevitable. I say we take the risk." _

_Everyone's eyes widened as they heard what had just come out from Katara's mouth. Looking at his friend as if she were walking into a death trap, Koji quickly responded back with, "Are you crazy?! That's probably what he wants you to do. If he captures you, he'll use you to find that crystal and then it's all over. We can't risk that!" _

"_Koji, I think we have to consider our options. I can't keep running from my destiny forever. You even said so yourself! I'm not a child anymore, I can handle myself. I was able to beat those three Sound shinobi on my own. So I think I've proven that I'm strong enough." Retorted the Uchiha heiress as both the Takahashi and Uchiha met face to face. _

_Knowing that he had lost, Koji slowly backed down and sat back in his seat. Waiting for a verdict, Naruto looked from both shinobi with his blue orbs and waited for Sasuke to tell them what they would do next. _

"_Then it's settled, we're going to Taiyoumura." Stated Sasuke as he leaned back in his seat. _

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**Alrighty, tell me what you guys thought of it! And I just wanted to ask you guys something; I know how this story is going to end, but I just wanted to know if guys would be interested to have an epilogue at the end or not? Just wondering because I might just end the story without an epilogue, so I want your opinion on this. **_

**Remember to review! **


	18. Chapter Seventeen: The Journey

**I hope that this long chapter makes up for my late update; I'm so sorry that I haven't update this story for a long time and I hope those of you who have kept up with this story haven't lost hope in me. Please be patient with me, and I will try not to disappoint you. Sorry again and please review cause that's what keeps me continuing to write new chapters and updating sooner!**

**And remember, I DON'T own any of the Naruto characters, except my OC's. **

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**Chapter 17: The Journey**

_Hurriedly packing up, the Uchiha heiress was now becoming accustomed to the fast-pace life of a kunoichi and as she quickly rushed to pack everything, she made sure to double-check her room for anything that was amiss. _

_Looking around the room, Katara made sure she had everything with her; taking one last look at herself in the mirror, she gave a smile as she looked down on the counter and saw her necklace. Seeing the shimmer from the silver Hidden Leaf Village necklace, she was quick to put it around her neck. Taking another look at her own reflection, she smiled as she softly touched the leaf symbol and ran her fingers through the inscribed writing on the back. _'I will always be there; when you cry, I will be there to wipe away the tears.'

_As a lonely tear fell from her navy orbs, Katara swiftly wiped it away as she imagined Itachi standing beside her; seeing his own familiar smirk in the mirror, the Uchiha heiress tightly clutched onto the piece of jewelry and reverted back to her mind into her own memories of said Uchiha. _

Flashback:

"Itachi, where are you taking me?" questioned the Uchiha heiress as she held onto the male Uchiha's arm as he guided her throughout the village.

"If I told you, it wouldn't be a surprise." Stated Itachi as Katara could imagine that smirk on his face.

As Katara silenced herself, she soon grew impatient as she realized that Itachi was still leading her around Konoha; holding in a huge sigh, she was quick to ask, "Are we there yet?"

"Hn…You know Katara, patience is a virtue" replied the Uchiha male as he continued to drag her along.

Glaring at him through her blindfold, Katara was quick to roll her eyes and mumble, "A virtue that I don't have and neither do you."

"Did you say something?" responded Itachi as he stopped and turned towards her.

Sheepishly replying back, Katara held up her arms in defense and said, "What? No! …So are we there yet?"

Letting out a sigh, Itachi replied with, "Yes." As he quickly turned her body around to face the horizon, he rapidly untied her blindfold.

Katara was standing beside Itachi's form and as she opened her navy orbs to the horizon, she was awed at how beautiful the scenery was. It was breathtaking; as the colorful field of flowers surrounded both Uchihas, all the different colors reflected off onto the calm, blue waters of the lake. Just as the sun was high enough on the horizon, it hit the blue waters of the lake and displayed an amazing scene as the reflection lit each flower's color.

Turning her gaze back to the Uchiha, Katara saw from the corner of her eye that Itachi was at peace; and as she saw a small smile appear on his lips, her own smile graced her lips as well.

Seeing that Katara was watching him, Itachi turned quickly enough to notice her stare and see her blush; smirking at her, he was quick to turn her around. Looking at him with a confusing expression written all over her face, her gesture quickly turned to shock as Itachi took out a silver Hidden Leaf symbol necklace. Raising it to her eye level, he was quick to put it around her neck.

Just merely touching the piece of jewelry around her neck, Katara quickly looked at it and gave him a sincere smile. Quickly jumping up and down in joy and wrapping her arms around him in an embrace, it took Itachi a few moments before returning the action.

As they both released each other, Katara was quick to say, "Arigatou, Itachi-kun! It's beautiful and I love –ah!" exclaimed the heiress as she tripped over her own feet, taking the Uchiha male down with her.

Both Uchihas landed on the soft grass and as Katara lay on Itachi's form with their legs intertwined, another blush appeared on her face. "G-gomen." Stuttered the heiress as she tried to prop herself with her arms. But due to her own luck, she failed miserably and ended up falling on top of him again.

As both their foreheads touched, Katara's blush deepened even more and as she got caught up in his onyx orbs, she couldn't help but freeze in her position. Just by getting caught up in his own eyes, Katara felt an electrical and magical impulse between them.

Just as she was drawn to touch his perfect face, Katara's action was broken by Itachi's own voice as he responded back with, "What are you doing?"

Stopping midway, Katara drew her hand back and replied with, "N-nothing."

"Hn." Itachi replied as he looked at her. Slowly losing his own patience, he was quick to say, "It would be nice if you got off me, Katara."

"Huh? Oh, sorry again." Said Katara as she got up on her own two feet and offered her own hand as she held it out forward.

Quickly taking her offer, both Uchihas were now sitting down on the ground and as they turned their gaze back to the horizon, Katara became too caught up in the landscape that she failed to realize that she was leaning on Itachi's chest.

Breaking from her daze, Katara was slowly moving away from him, but as Itachi's arm came forward and pulled her back, the heiress silently rested her head on his shoulder.

Both Uchihas stayed in that position in silence; and although there was no conversation going on, both enjoyed the silent atmosphere and the calm setting.

End flashback.

_As far as Katara was concerned, she was sure that that day was the best day of her life; she cherished every minute she spent with him, and as she looked back at her necklace, her thoughts drifted farther and farther down towards thinking about the raven-haired vampire. _

_Feeling a hand on her shoulder, Katara was brought out of her own thoughts and she was quick to turn her head to the side as she came back from her own memory; once seeing a head of black hair in her direction, Katara realized who was now standing beside her. Seeing that the Takahashi was standing next to her, she gave him her full attention as she watched him with her navy eyes. _

"_Katara, are you ready?" questioned Koji as he stood beside her in the mirror. _

"_Yeah, Koji; lets go." Replied the Uchiha heiress as she moved towards the door. _

* * *

_As all five shinobi quietly left their base, they were quick to conceal their chakra signatures and their own tracks. Their feet pounded heavily on the snowy branches of the tree tops; jumping from branch to branch, the Uchiha heiress felt a surge of determination pass through her and as she tightly clutched onto her necklace, she increased her speed. _

_Following closely behind the other Uchiha, she saw him smirk as Sasuke noticed how enthusiastic she was. Giving him her own smirk, the Uchiha heiress traveled side by side by him as all five moved straight ahead. _

"_So what's the plan when we get there?" questioned Koji as he appeared from behind. _

"_We should try to find this crystal seeing that this is something that Orochimaru is after. When we get there, we should all stay together; our numbers are small compared to the soldiers that he has. We will be close in perimeter to the enemy's territory, so we all need to be careful." Warned the Uchiha as everyone continued to move forward. _

* * *

_A few hours later: _

"_So this is the place?" questioned Naruto as all five shinobi stood before a large, intimidating, old ruin. _

"_Yeah, it looks exactly like what I saw in my dream." Katara answered as she looked around the whole area and saw the familiar exotic looking plants surrounding all of them. _

"_Well, you're the expert here, Katara, do you mind leading the way?" questioned Sasuke as all four shinobi allowed the Uchiha heiress to step forward. _

"_Sure…lets go." Replied Katara as she calmly stepped forward towards the entrance. "Well first, Sasuke, turn on your Sharingan." The Uchiha heiress instructed as she saw the Uchiha quickly turn on his bloodline without any questions. _

_As Katara quickly turned on her own Sharingan, she gave a nod towards Sasuke; taking the cue, both Uchihas quickly stepped back a few feet;_ _forming the appropriate hand seals, they both rapidly made the correct signs for the same fire style technique. Once the chakra had balanced and collected in their systems, both of them leaned back, concentrated the chakra in their bodies, and instantaneously, they released the fire technique from their mouths. Both red-blazing embers passed through the two paths on the door, and within moments, the stoned door slowly opened and allowed all five shinobi to enter inside._

"_WHOA!" loudly exclaimed Naruto as he and everyone else looked around the whole area. _

_Despite even dreaming about this place herself, Katara was in awe as she looked around the place. Seeing all the strange writing on the walls, along with the enormous spacing that was laid out before them, the Uchiha heiress still remained amazed as she continued to look at the whole setting. Katara became caught up in the old hieroglyphics and as she carefully had her fingers skim over the ancient writing, she quickly recoiled her finger as she felt some pain pass through. _

_Looking back at one of her fingers, the heiress saw that it seemed like she had received a cut from one of the jagged rocks. As she was about to stop the bleeding with her own medical jutsu, Katara was surprised to see the wound heal itself up. Widening her navy orbs in shock, she saw the wound seal itself up and as she rapidly wiped the blood away, she saw that it looked like she had never received the wound. _

_"Katara, are you all right?" questioned Koji as he approached her. _

_As he stood in front of her, Katara was still looking at her finger in shock and as the Takahashi also took a look at her finger, he raised his own eyebrow at her in confusion. _

_Quickly pulling her finger away from his grasp, the heiress sheepishly replied back with, "Yeah, I'm fine Koji! Don't worry about me!" Katara had said as she gave him a quick smile. _

_"All right then; I'm just concerned." replied Koji as he gave her a smile as well. _

* * *

_Seeing something from the corner of her eye, Katara was quick to stop the blonde shinobi with her arm as she quickly glared at him with her crimson orbs. "Naruto…don't make too many sudden movements; you don't know what you're doing, so I should probably be the one leading." _

"_Huh? Why is that Katara?" questioned Naruto as he looked at his friend. _

"_Naruto, considering how old this place looks, there's probably several traps laid out." Explained the pink-haired medic as she turned towards the blonde. _

"_Hehehe, I guess I didn't think about that part." Naruto replied as he scratched the back of his head. _

"_Yeah, you normally don't think ahead…" mumbled Sasuke as he looked at the blonde with a stern look. _

"_What was that, Sasuke!" yelled the hyperactive nin as he approached the Uchiha. _

_As Sasuke met up with his advance, he was quick to reply with, "Nothing, baka." _

"_Excuse me, what was that?" exclaimed Naruto as he and Sasuke were now starting a glaring contest. _

"_Guys, calm down; there's no point in fighting in this type of situation. You guys can continue this later after we get the crystal." Stated Koji as he jumped in between the two shinobi and separated them from each other. "Now getting back to other important matters, lead the way, Katara." Said the Takahashi as he gave the heiress a sincere smile. _

_Nodding at his response, Katara was quick to move forward; as all four shinobi quickly followed her own footing throughout the long, barely lit hallway, Katara saw that the only light that shone in the tomb were the glimpses of light from the small cracks of the roof. _

_As the five shinobi moved through the hallway as quick as possible, they were fortunate so far as no traps were set off. Katara was keeping up with her pace and as she felt everyone else follow her steps closely behind her, she felt carefree as she heard the soft footsteps step correctly on each tile in a rhythmic sequence. _

_Still continuing on with the same pace, the Uchiha heiress felt as relaxed as ever as everything seemed to go right; all five shinobi were still safe and nothing had gone amiss. Each of their steps echoed hers and as Katara closed her eyes, replaying the route that her brother had shone her in her mind, she abruptly stopped as she heard someone take a misstep. _

_Turning around to see who had made the mistake, she wasn't all too surprised as her navy blue orbs saw her blonde friend sheepishly look at the four leaf shinobi. _

"_NARUTO!" exclaimed the pink-haired kunoichi as she turned around to face said ninja. _

_Just as Sakura was about to punch the blonde, Katara was quick to stop them as she quickly came between them and stopped the hit. As she looked at the other kunoichi, she saw her relax and move her arm to freely rest at her side. _

"_Sakura, now isn't the time. We need to move!" exclaimed the heiress as she quickly took the kunoichi's hand and lead the others quickly through the hallway as several kunai knives and shuriken were headed towards them. _

_All five shinobi were breathing heavily as they each tried to dodge the projectiles; although they were running out of breathe from the fast speed pace, Katara was determined to get them past the obstacle. As she was still holding onto Sakura's arm, she turned her head to the side and noticed how the weapons were increasing in speed. _

_Quickly pushing herself and the pink-haired medic on the ground, the other males followed their example as they too joined them on the stone ground. _

_Allowing the many weapons to shoot past them as they all remained still, the rampage still continued. The Uchiha heiress was covering her head with her arms from the weapons and as she saw that the onslaught suddenly stopped, she was quick to return back onto her feet and dust her clothes off. _

_Turning around to check the damage, she saw that her friends were also back on their feet and as Katara looked at each of them, her attention was pointed towards Naruto; "Naruto, I thought I told you to be careful." The Uchiha heiress said as she looked at the blonde with a softened expression. _

"_Gomen, Katara-chan. I'll watch where I'm going next time." Apologized the leaf nin as he looked at everyone. _

"_I just can't believe you, Naruto; you would be the only one who would cause us all this trouble." Complained Sakura as she glared at the blonde. _

"_Hey, Sakura, he already said he was sorry. Just let it go." Stated the heiress as she barged in between the two. _

"_She's right." Interrupted Sasuke as he turned towards them. "No one's severely hurt right now and we need to continue with our journey before anyone knows that we've been here. _

"_Right, so then let's go." Said Koji as he turned towards the two bickering leaf nin and pushed them forward. _

* * *

_After a few more moments of making their way throughout the large ruin, they had made several turns and twists throughout the ancient hallways. As things got smoother along the way, the Uchiha heiress once again was able to picture the exact route in her mind and lead her group towards the right direction. _

_As she abruptly stopped in her own tracks, the other four shinobi almost crashed into her until they also stopped a few centimeters before her. The five shinobi were currently standing on top of a cliff and as they leaned forward a bit, they saw a canyon with several sharp rocks that lay at the bottom. Skulls and skeletons decorated the ground floor making the whole obstacle look more intimidating._

_Just as she had seen in her dream, Katara turned her gaze to the left and saw the same unstable bridge, held up by its own feeble ropes. _

_Slowly making her way towards the fragile bridge, the heiress felt everyone watch her movement and as Katara took her first step onto the bridge, the first wooden board broke off and fell into the canyon. Just by putting a little bit of her weight onto her foot, the Uchiha realized that they'd have to rush through before their only route would break. _

"_I guess we'll all have to cross one at a time on this, so who wants to go first?" questioned the heiress as she turned towards her group of friends. As she watched them, she saw fear and concern flash through their eyes and knew that they were feeling just as nervous as she was. Dreams are different from reality; in a dream, you can't get hurt, but when you're in reality, pain is unavoidable and as Katara stood before the ravine with this type of mindset, she tried to calm herself down and not think about the consequences. _

"_You sure this is the only way, Katara?" questioned Koji as he raised an eyebrow at her. _

"_Yeah, I'm sure, Koji. I don't see any other way to the other side." Explained the female Uchiha. _

"_Are you crazy? That thing's way too unstable!" Naruto said as he pointed an accusing finger at the bridge. _

"_Well Naruto, it's our only option right now, unless you can fly or walk on the walls, then we wouldn't have this problem." Katara joked as she looked at them and waited for anyone to volunteer to go first. _

_Turning her gaze towards the other Uchiha, she noticed how he had been quiet throughout the entire situation; looking closely, Katara saw that he was deep in thought. Waiting for any type of reaction from him, they both locked eyes with each other, and at that moment, the heiress knew he had something up his sleeve. _

"_Sasuke, what is it?" asked Katara as everyone's attention was turned towards the male Uchiha. _

"_We might be able to do that." Sasuke said as he smirked at her. _

"_Wh-what are you talking about?" questioned Sakura as everyone turned towards the male and waited for him to answer. _

"_We might be able to walk on the walls by using our chakra. It's safer than walking across that bridge." Explained the Uchiha as he waited for anyone's response. _

"_So we should just try walking up the walls." Stated Koji as he, along with everyone else, turned their attention to the walls of the large ruin. _

"_All right, let's do it then!" exclaimed the hyperactive nin as he quickly concentrated chakra into his feet and charged at the ruin's walls. _

"_Naruto wait!" exclaimed the Uchiha heiress as she tried to reach out to her friend as fast as possible. But unfortunately, Katara was too slow in stopping her friend's advance and as everyone watched Naruto make his first step onto the wall, they all saw how he quickly fell on his bottom. _

_Just looking at the blonde's quick actions, Katara shook her head in shame as she already had known he wasn't the best at chakra control. Quickly approaching him and helping himself get up, the heiress healed up the several scratches he had received from the fall. _

"_Naruto, you need to be more careful; you're not the best at chakra control, so you should have someone else try it out first." The Uchiha explained as she finished healing his wounds. _

"_I'm fine, Katara-chan. See good as new!" the blonde answered as he quickly jumped up and down to show that he was all right. _

"_Well, I guess someone else should try it. How about you, Koji?" asked the heiress as she turned towards the Takahashi. "I mean you've basically mastered chakra control and I'm sure you'll be able to show us what to do." _

"_I suppose I'll try it first." Said Koji as he quickly got into a stance and concentrated enough chakra onto the balls of his feet. _

_As everyone now watched the chakra control master make his way towards the wall, they all watched closely as he took his first step; with all the anticipation, Katara was glad that he hadn't fallen off yet and as Koji was just about to reach the ceiling, his footing suddenly slipped and his body headed for the ground below him. _

_Watching him fall, Katara was beginning to get concerned and just as she was about to do something, she let out a huge sigh as she saw he had landed on his feet. _

_Everyone quickly approached him and as they watched him take a couple of deep breaths, Katara stood beside him and waited for him to say something. _

"_Koji, what happened up there? That usually never happens to you." The heiress said as she showed her concern for him in her navy orbs. _

_Turning towards her, the blue-eyed shinobi replied with, "I don't know; as I got higher, I added the right amount of chakra to my feet in order to keep me stable, but if that was the case, I should've made an indent on the wall. But that didn't happen." Koji had said as he tried to muse over what just had happened to him. _

"_If Koji can't do it, what makes you think we could even try to do it?" questioned Sakura as worry showed on her face as well. _

"_I-I don't know, Sakura. Then the only option is that bridge." Katara answered as she turned her gaze back to the unstable bridge and shivered in fear. _

_As everyone was making their way back towards the bridge, they all stopped in their tracks as a familiar voice broke through: _

"_Wait…" the male Uchiha said as he took a step forward and touched the stone walls. Closing his onyx orbs as he seemed to be concentrating on something, within a few more moments, he opened them and turned towards the group. _

"_This wall is much more smooth and harder to get a grip on it; I'm guessing that the people who had previously made these walls created them for a purpose to stop people from walking on them, leaving trespassers to take the most dangerous route to get to the crystal." Sasuke said aloud as he turned towards them. _

"_This is really nice information to know, Sasuke, but how does that help us?" questioned the blonde as he too took a look at the wall. _

"_Well, it doesn't, but I have an idea." Replied the Uchiha as he looked at the heiress. _

_As all eyes were settled on the female Uchiha, Katara couldn't help but feel like the center of attention; looking at all of them directly in the eye, especially at the other Uchiha, Katara remained still and waited for someone to say something. _

_The moment of awkward silence was soon broken as Sasuke asked aloud, "Katara, do you think you could try climbing up the wall this time?" _

"_Umm..I don't know if that's such a good idea; I mean Koji and Naruto weren't able to do it, so what makes you think I could?" questioned the heiress as she looked at the stone wall. _

"_I'm just testing a theory and if it's right, then we'll be able to cross without any trouble." Explained the Uchiha as he waited for her response. _

"_What theory are you trying to test out, Sasuke-kun?" asked the pink-haired kunoichi as everyone was waiting for a more detailed explanation. _

"_We'll just have to see what happens; then I'll explain." Sasuke responded as he smirked at them. _

_As everyone else looked at the Uchiha with annoyance, they all couldn't help but roll their eyes at his mysterious attitude. _

_Just as everyone stopped rolling their eyes at the male Uchiha's antics, Katara quickly concentrated chakra into her feet and rapidly ran at the wall. As her right foot met up with the solid stone wall, she felt herself make more and more progress. _

_Before she even knew it, the heiress had already made her way up onto the ceiling as she looked below and saw her friends standing on the ground. Waving at them and giving them a sincere smile, both Koji, Naruto, and Sakura, were awed at her achievement. _

_As Sasuke signaled for her to come back down, Katara hastily released her grip on the ceiling and landed perfectly in front of them. _

_Seeing that the other Uchiha was smirking, Katara couldn't help but also wonder what he was planning inside his mind; "So what was this theory, Sasuke?" asked the female Uchiha as she, along with everyone else, looked at him. _

"_I wasn't sure if it was going to work, but it seemed like it did. I watching everyone, including Koji and Naruto, when you guys tried to walk up the wall. During Koji's turn, I noticed how his chakra network suddenly spiked and maximized itself over a large surface area but that wasn't enough. With a smooth surface like this, having a chakra network that is flexible that can expand over a large surface area can allow someone to have a strong grip even on the smoothest surfaces. Our bodies are different from yours." Explained Sasuke. _

"_What do you mean by different?" questioned Sakura as she switched her gaze between both Uchihas. _

_Also wondering what he meant by that, Katara listened closely as the male Uchiha gave another explanation: "As vampires, our bodies are slightly different and in turn, our chakra networks are different as well; for example, we are initially born with fast speed and high levels of stamina because of our chakra networks. First off, we have more chakra points that allows us to expand our chakra in larger amounts and much more quickly as well. We can also expand our chakra into larger surface areas and are able to make our chakra spread out more thinly, giving us better control." _

"_So you wanted to see if this slight disparity would make any difference in this situation." Stated Katara. _

_With a nod, the male Uchiha replied with, "Yes, that was the idea. And now that we've figured that out, both you and I can take people over to the other side, one at a time." _

"_All right then, let's do this; the faster we get this done, the faster we get to the crystal." Answered the heiress as she prepared herself. _

* * *

_Moments later, both Uchihas managed to get both Sakura and Koji to the other side and as they both waited patiently for everyone else to come to them, they only had Naruto to wait for. _

_As Katara tightly held onto the blonde, she was having some trouble concentrating on her chakra control and making sure Naruto wouldn't slip from her grip. Although she did feel more at ease with the other Uchiha who was behind her, the heiress still felt entitled to making sure her friend would get across without getting hurt. _

_Trying to concentrate on her footing as much as possible, the Uchiha heiress was making good progress as both shinobi were slowly making their way towards the other side. _

_Just as they both reached the middle of the canyon, Katara felt her hold on the blonde slowly slip and as she tried to readjust her grasp, she gasped in shock as she watched in slow motion as he began to fall. _

_As her navy orbs widened, Katara was frozen in her spot as she watched him descend; afraid for his well-being, the heiress tried to do something, but knew that there was nothing she could do. _

"_NARUTO!" screamed the heiress as she tried reaching out and catching him before he'd fall further. _

_But as she proved to be too slow, Naruto continued to fall. Her heart was beating so fast in her chest and as she watched in terror, she became relieved as she saw a white blur move and catch the blonde and safely set him on the other side. _

_Catching her own breath, Katara was glad that Sasuke had saved him, and as she still quickly made her way down from the ceiling and to the other side, she rapidly ran towards the blonde and embraced him in the most bone-crushing hug he ever experienced. _

"_Omg, I'm so sorry Naruto! Are you all right?" asked the Uchiha as she released him and checked him over for any injuries. _

"_I'm fine, Katara-chan. Don't worry about me." Said Naruto as he gave her a thumbs up and smiled at her. _

_Feeling relieved, Katara was glad that everyone had safely made it through and had avoided the bridge altogether. Smiling at their accomplishment, the Uchiha's own thoughts were interrupted by Koji as he quickly said, "Well then, now that's over, we should continue on our journey then. Katara, be free to lead the way." He had said as he quickly moved out of her way and allowed the Uchiha to step forward. _

_Quickly jumping into a running pace, the Uchiha heiress felt the others following behind her and as she made another quick right turn around the corner, Katara came upon the same new pathway she had seen in her dream. As she swiftly made her way in, she felt everyone else follow her. _

_Even though she had already seen the tomb, she was still awed; the large stone staircase was centered and as everyone stood at the lowest level of the area, Katara was the first to quickly rush up the stairs. _

_Watching her movements, all four shinobi stood at their spots until they suddenly came to the realization to follow her. _

* * *

_Katara had already made it to the top and as she was ready to see the bright, red glow of the crystal, she stopped dead in her own tracks. The only thing she saw on the stone tablet was the crystal's indent and as she looked at the spot, it was only covered in dust. _

_Falling down onto her knees in despair, Katara couldn't help but slam her fist down onto the stone tablet and let her own anger take over her. As tears began to fall from her eyes, the Uchiha heiress couldn't help but let her frustration out. _

_To her, it felt as though everything they had gone through had lead to nothing and as she allowed herself to fully kneel on the ground, she quickly used her hands to cover her face as she let more tears fall. _

_Silently crying, Katara quickly felt a hand on her shoulder; turning around with eyes still full with tears, the heiress came into contact with the Takahashi. _

_As she quickly held onto him and cried, everyone remained silent for awhile as Katara released her frustration and anger that had been bottled inside her for a long time. _

_After a few more moments, Katara finally calmed herself down and looked at the now cracked tablet. Taking a few steps forward, the Uchiha still was confused as she tried looking for the stone _

"_I-I don't understand; in my dream, Haku and I found the stone here. Where could it have gone? He told me that Orochimaru didn't even know where the stone was located, so where is it then?" asked the heiress as she turned towards her friends for any answers. _

"_You sure, Katara?" questioned the Takahashi as he approached her. _

"_Hai, I'm sure…it doesn't make any sense though!" Katara exclaimed as she once again slammed her fist on the tablet. _

"_Katara, just calm down, getting frustrated and violent isn't going to solve anything right now. Just look at the bright side." Stated Koji as he tried to soothe her. _

"You don't understand, Koji; we went through all that trouble for nothing! _What kind of bright side is there in this situation?" asked the heiress as she turned towards her friends. _

"_That Orochimaru doesn't have the crystal. And that's all that matters. And you're safe, Katara; doesn't that mean anything to you?" Answered the kunoichi as she joined the conversation. _

"_That's right! He doesn't have it, so that's one less thing to worry about. And you're still here, away from his grasp!" Exclaimed Naruto as he pumped his fist in the air. _

_Giggling at his antics, Katara was quick to give a smile; "Arigatou, Naruto-kun, Sakura-chan. I guess we should leave then since there's nothing here for us." _

"_Yeah, let's go. We're already too near the kingdom as it is and I'm pretty sure Kakashi would be mad at us if he found out how close we are to Orochimaru." Stated Sasuke as he turned to leave. _

"_Yeah, let's go you guys." Said the heiress as she followed Sasuke's actions and slowly made her way down the stairs. _

_But as she continued to walk down the steps, Katara couldn't help but feel disappointed as she looked back. Even though there was a silver lining, the heiress couldn't help but feel disappointed and confused; __**'Haku, why would you lead us this far only to discover that the crystal is already gone?' **_

* * *

**_Well, I hope you enjoyed that chapter; next time, there will be more action, so please stay tuned and please review! Thank you! _**

**_-Katara_**


	19. Chapter Eighteen: Hidden Emotions

**Sorry for the late update, but I hope this makes up for it! This is probably the longest chapter I have for this story and I hope you enjoy it! I wanted to get the battle scenes just right so that's probably why this update is so late. Please continue to stay tuned and I promise you that you won't be disappointed. Remember to review, and I'll be sure to get the next chapter up as soon as possible. **

**Disclaimer: I don't own any of the Naruto characters, only my OC's. **

**Now go on and read and I hope you enjoy!**

* * *

_**Chapter 18: Hidden Emotions **_

_After a long journey, as all five shinobi managed to make their way out of the ruin, they already saw that they had a few more hours of sunlight before nightfall would approach them. There were only some rays of light breaking through the branches of the trees and as everyone trudged forward until they reached the clearing, they quickly decided to set up camp there._

_Everyone quickly set down their things and each person separated from the group to perform their own tasks. _

_As Katara collected some branches for a fire, she heard a branch crack; quickly turning around and searching for any unfamiliar chakra signatures, the heiress was stunned to see a strange man standing before her. _

_Katara slowly backed away from the man as she quickly dropped her twigs and as she made a run for it, she quickly bumped into said man as he suddenly reappeared before her. _

_Quickly screaming from surprise and slowly backing away again, the Uchiha heiress was slightly petrified as her body wouldn't move on her command. Just looking at the man, she saw that he was pale and just by his mere presence, she felt his strong chakra signature. _

_As she saw him stare down at her, Katara couldn't help but feel timid and scared; she quickly took out a kunai knife and as she tried to erase the fear from her face, she got into a battle stance, ready to take him on. _

_The strange pale-colored man smirked at her, and as he slowly approached her, Katara tried to stand her ground. As he now only stood a few feet away from her, the Uchiha's eyes widened as she saw several sharp bones shoot out from his arm that were aimed at her. _

_Taking the kunai knife and readying herself to cancel out the sharp projectiles, she tried her best to defend herself. As she felt one skim her arm, she rapidly dropped her kunai knife and tried to stop the bleeding. _

_Stopping her own defense and trying to heal her wound, Katara failed to realize that more weapons were being thrown at her. As she healed her wound within seconds, the Uchiha turned her gaze towards the projectiles, and quickly picked up her fallen kunai knife, preparing herself to get hit. _

_Turning on her own Sharingan, her crimson eyes slowed down their movements and as she managed to cancel out each sharp bone coming towards her, she turned to glare at her opponent. _

_She saw the surprise written in his green eyes and as she saw him smirk at her as well, she knew that she was in for a hard battle. _

_Sensing four other strange presences arriving in the same area, Katara saw that these shinobi were with the pale-skinned shinobi. _

_Knowing that on the inside she was shaking in fear, Katara put those feelings aside as she was ready to fight. _

_As all five Sound shinobi surrounded her, Katara took her own defensive stance as she saw them close in. All of them were beginning to charge at her and just as the heiress was going to attack back, her navy orbs widened in shock again. _

_She saw all of her friends come and defend her and as she watched them, she saw them push back her opponents. Sakura had quickly used a chakra filled punch against the bulky one and as Sasuke axe kicked another, Naruto followed up with some shadow clones and threw one opponent into an opposing tree, while Koji followed up with a combination of a punch and a roundhouse kick into another opponent's gut. _

_

* * *

_

_Opening her eyes to see what had just happened, the Uchiha heiress saw that her opponents were quickly pushed back and as she looked at their group of opponents, Katara saw that the five Sound nin quickly recovered from the attacks; as they stood before them, all five leaf shinobi felt their killing auras._

_Seeing that their opponents were more experienced and more powerful than previous opponents, Sasuke gave a nod to everyone and quickly surrounded Katara. _

_As their backs were facing her, Katara tried to look past Sasuke's as she saw their new enemies. She tried to contain her fear from becoming so obvious and as she was almost about to fail, her own fearful daze was broken by a familiar voice; "Katara don't worry; you're safe with us." Sasuke had said as he finally managed to reassure her. _

_Nodding at him in agreement, Katara was quick to turn her attention towards the enemy and waited for what was about to come. _

"_Well, well, well, what do we have here?" asked the bulky nin as he turned towards his other comrades. _

"_Seems like some trespassers, Hideko-sama." Replied another nin as he gave his brown-haired superior a smirk. _

"_It seems like it; well then I guess we should show them what happens to trespassers around here." Their superior said as he carefully observed all the five shinobi. Turning his attention to the young girl in the middle of the group, Katara felt his gaze harden. And as everyone, even Katara, saw the smirk on his face, the Uchiha heiress silently shivered in fear. _

"_This must be our lucky day, boys. Look at what we've got here. It's a pleasure to meet you, Princess Katara." The man said as he gave her an evil grin. _

_Katara silently gulped and became nervous as she looked back at the five Sound nin; it wasn't the size of the group that made them scary, but it was that one the nin that stood out from the rest with his huge chakra reservoirs that she had encountered earlier. Even though she was slightly new to the shinobi world, Katara could tell that the pale-skinned shinobi was a strong opponent. Although his physique was fairly skinny, the heiress saw that within his green eyes showed no emotion, just blankness. _

"_Hideko," addressed the pale-colored nin, "I will be happy to take care of them." _

"_Kimimaro, don't be ridiculous; you can't take all five out by yourself." The squad leader said as he tried to reason with the Sound nin. _

_Glaring at his superior, the green-eyed shinobi approached the bulky nin and said, "I will lead this fight; you four will back me up." He said as he threateningly glared at all four of his comrades. _

"_H-hai, Kimimaro-san." Replied one of the nin as he shakingly took out a kunai. _

"_As for you," Kimimaro began as he turned towards his opponents, more specifically the male Uchiha, "I hope you're ready to fight against me." The Kaguya said as he glared at the Uchiha. _

"_Hn…the real question is if you're ready to fight against me." Calmly replied Sasuke as he quickly took out his katana from its sheath and activated his bloodline. _

_The Uchiha heiress could see the Kaguya's own comrades slightly cower in fear as they too watched the pale-skinned shinobi circle around their group. As Katara carefully followed his movements with her eyes, she saw that Kimimaro suddenly stopped before the male Uchiha. _

"_This must be the famous Sharingan; this should be interesting then. I wonder how your bloodline will be able to match mine." Kimimaro stated as he gave the Uchiha a smirk. _

"_We'll just have to see then." The male Uchiha said as he smirked back. _

_Looking at Sasuke with concern, Katara was just about to reach out her arm until she was abruptly stopped by a whisper: "Katara, I'll be fine; I know he's a strong opponent, but don't worry about me." The Uchiha had assured her with a calm, steady voice. _

_Nodding her head at his response, the heiress' mind was put at ease. Somehow she felt like she could trust him when he said that and as she saw both males approach each other, her nerves calmed down a bit. _

"_If you want to see the powers of the Uchiha clan, then I'll show you!" exclaimed Sasuke as he bared his fangs at his opponent and chose to make the first move by swiftly charging at his opponent. _

_With his sword in hand, the male Uchiha was quick to make practical slashes at his opponent and as the Kaguya defended himself with his bones, Sasuke continued on with his barrage of attacks. _

_Quickly disappearing from the area, the male Uchiha tried to outmaneuver his opponent's defenses by using his speed; as Sasuke made another quick flicker away from his opponent, he reappeared from behind and tried to land a side kick onto his opponent's side. _

_As more bones appeared before him, the Uchiha rapidly backed away and watched with his crimson orbs as Kimimaro pulled out bones from his body. Smirking at the Uchiha's own shock, he was quick to straighten out the rows of bones into a sword. _

_Both shinobi now held strong weapons before them and as they stood before each other, just watching for any movements, they instantaneously charged at each other. _

_Metal hit bone and as both continued to meet up, it seemed as though both Sound and Leaf shinobi were at a stalemate. _

_

* * *

_

_Watching from the sidelines, Katara could barely keep up with their fast paced movements with her own eyes. It would seem that the male Uchiha would disappear just as he would reappear and as the heiress watched in awe, she still felt concerned for her friend. _

_Feeling someone touch her shoulder, Katara was alert and was about to attack said person, but as she turned around to see who it was, she saw that Naruto was giving her a reassuring smile. _

"_Katara, he'll be fine; Sasuke knows how to take care of himself." Said the blonde as he also gave her a smile. _

_Smiling back at the blonde and quickly nodding her head, Katara's mind was now in the right mindset to start facing their own opponents. _

_They were still surrounded by the other four Sound nin and as the Uchiha heiress joined in confronting their enemy, she quickly activated her bloodline. With a kunai held in her hand, she was as prepared for the battle as anyone else in the group. _

_As Koji nodded his head to signal for them to make the first move, the two leaf nin moved as they left the Takahashi and the Uchiha in the middle of the group. _

_Swiftly coming from behind and head locking an enemy, Naruto was quick to restrain the brown-haired Sound nin and yelled to his comrade; "Koji! Here's your chance, take it now!" _

_Quickly nodding and performing the necessary seals, the Takahashi was quick to turn on his own bloodline, causing his blue orbs to turn a pale green color; looking at the Sound nin with his eyes, Koji made one more seal resembling a triangular formation, and as he focused on his opponent, his jutsu was fully activated. _

"_All right, Naruto, it's fine now, you can let him go." Said Koji as he kept his hands in the same formation. _

_The blonde nin slowly let go of his enemy's body and as he stepped back, Naruto could see that Koji had the nin under his control. _

_The Sound nin portrayed shock on his face and as he felt himself come towards his comrade with a kunai in hand, he tried to resist the technique but it ended in failure. As Koji continued to control the Sound nin, he focused intently as his Sound nin puppet was fighting against another. _

"_Naruto, you should go help Sakura, I'll be fine with protecting Koji if anyone plans to attack." Yelled the heiress as she defended against some kunai and shuriken headed at them. _

_Nodding and quickly leaving the area, the blonde now knew that there were only two more Sound nin to take care of. _

_

* * *

_

_Meeting up with his pink-haired teammate, the hyperactive nin had seen that she was currently trying to avoid both Sound nin. _

_Seeing that the bulky, black-haired nin was still left along with a white-haired kunoichi, Naruto was ready to take them on. Quickly giving a nod to his teammate, the blonde rapidly jumped into the fight and was ready to take on the one referred to as Hideko, while Sakura would fight against the kunoichi. _

_Summoning up two shadow clones, all three Narutos split up and headed towards their target. As the Sound nin blocked the first Naruto's attempt at a kick to his side, he was also quick to duck and jump out of the way from a punch. _

"_Looks like you have to try harder, leaf brat." Said Hideko as he grabbed a clone and got rid of it by slashing it with a kunai. _

_Turning around to look for his enemy, the Sound nin heard a sound coming from the bushes; widening his eyes from shock, he saw another Naruto headed for him. As Naruto swiftly delivered a kick towards his enemy's feet, the Sound nin fell harshly onto the ground. _

_Swiftly taking advantage of his opponent's position, the blonde landed a kick onto the Sound nin's side and a punch to his face. His enemy had grunted in pain, and within a few seconds, he quickly got back onto his feet to face Naruto. _

_Wiping off some blood from his mouth, Hideko checked over the damage the blonde had caused to his body; still looking at the leaf nin and smirking at his attempts to try to fatally wound him, he only merely chuckled and continued to do so for a few more minutes. _

_Looking at the nin with his blue orbs, Naruto was stunned to see his opponent's wounds heal by themselves and appear as though he was never hurt in the first place. As black marks began to spread throughout the Sound nin's body, the blonde felt an incredible increase in his enemy's chakra levels. The marks began to cover his whole body and as Hideko's skin turned a dark maroon color, Naruto could see a definite change in his opponent's strength as the nin portrayed a new, darker demeanor. _

_Still smirking at his enemy, the bulky shinobi was quick to say, "Get ready for your death, brat," as he cracked his knuckles and quickly charged at his opponent. _

_Naruto, watching his opponent's movements and noticing his spike in chakra, quickly prepared for the oncoming attack; sidestepping out of the way, the Sound nin narrowly missed the blonde by an inch, and as Naruto checked for any damage, he saw that the nin was increasing in speed. Seeing pieces of his hair on the floor, the blonde leaf nin looked up and turned his gaze towards his opponent. _

_Seeing that the Sound nin was now holding up a kunai, Naruto was quick to see that his enemy was incasing chakra over the kunai in order to make it sharper. With his newfound speed and strength, the blonde shinobi knew he was in trouble. _

_

* * *

_

_Quickly avoiding the punch and kick by dodging and ducking, the pink-haired kunoichi moved out of the way as another punch was headed after her. As she saw a boulder behind her smash into millions of pieces, the leaf kunoichi was quick to move into her offensive mode; taking the battle into her own hands, Sakura swiftly sent chakra into her fist and managed to land a hit onto the Sound kunoichi's jaw. _

_As the impact from the attack caused her enemy to be pushed back several feet, the pink-haired medic stood back, heavily breathing, as the attack took a lot out of her chakra. The strength that came by merely sending some chakra to her fist took a lot of concentration and stamina to contain and as Sakura was slowly recovering, she watched carefully as the other kunoichi wiped the blood from her mouth. _

_Fiercely glaring at her opponent, the Sound kunoichi continued to watch her opponent with her red orbs as she quickly recovered from the hit; if the attack was any stronger, it would've seriously injured the kunoichi's jaw and as she felt some pain as she moved it, Leiko felt her anger boil. The white-haired kunoichi couldn't believe that she had been hit and as she set her jaw in place and sent healing chakra to it, she was ready to finish the fight off quickly. _

_Still watching her opponent, Sakura was shocked to see her stand confidently straight and as the Sound kunoichi smirked at her, the leaf nin quickly took out a kunai, ready for anything that would be headed towards her. _

_Metal clashed with metal as both kunai knives met each other and as each kunoichi tried to gain the upper hand in the battle, they both found that their power was at the same level as the other's. _

_Quickly backing away from her opponent, Sakura was quick to grab a few senbon from her holster and charge directly at the other kunoichi; as both kunoichi were now coming at each other again, the pink haired kunoichi quickly threw several needles at her opponent. Leiko quickly dodged to the left and as the senbon passed through the air without hitting their target, the Sound kunoichi swiftly used her feet to jump up high into the air, just barely hovering over her opponent. _

_Turning her gaze upward, Sakura's emerald eyes widened in surprise as she saw the Sound kunoichi above her. Just as the white-haired kunoichi landed and almost stabbed the leaf nin with her kunai knife, Sakura had managed to move out of the way and quickly disappear from the battlefield. _

_The Leaf kunoichi, still hiding behind a large tree stump, saw that the other kunoichi was becoming frustrated as she met up with nothing but air and the dirt ground. As she watched the Sound nin scan the area, the pink-haired medic was quick to take out another kunai from her pouch. _

_Ducking down quickly before her opponent could see her, the pink-haired kunoichi tried to silence herself as she felt her enemy's red eyes glaze over her. Sweat started appearing on Sakura's brow and as she quietly wiped it away, the kunoichi continued to hold her breath as she waited patiently for her opponent to remove her gaze from her._

_Once sensing that Leiko's gaze had quickly switched to another part of the battlefield, Sakura felt at ease and let out a sigh. As she took another peek at her opponent from behind the tree trunk, Sakura found her looking towards the opposite direction. _

_Taking a look at her kunai knife, the leaf kunoichi tightly held onto it; sensing that her body was reaching her limit, the pink-haired medic knew that she only had one shot at this. Taking a deep intake of breath before quickly exhaling, Sakura prepared herself for her next move. Quickly tying a small bag of explosive tags onto her weapon, Sakura relaxed her body, and was now ready._

_Looking up from her hiding spot, Sakura was quick to throw her kunai knife at her opponent. As the kunai moved swiftly and silently through the air, Sakura continued to keep her gaze on her opponent. Watching the Sound kunoichi turn her body to have her red-eyed gaze meet up with the projectile, the pink-haired kunoichi saw her quickly throw a kunai knife, ready to cancel out her attack. The leaf kunoichi knew that it was now her time to act before her opponent's weapon would cancel hers out. _

_Widening her emerald eyes in horror, the leaf kunoichi knew that it was now her time to act before her opponent's weapon would cancel hers out. Throwing out another projectile, the leaf kunoichi watched as her senbon quickly made contact with the kunai knife; skimming just the surface of the small, brown bag, the sharp needle swiftly cut open the bag of explosives, quickly littering them around Leiko. _

_As the Sound kunoichi quickly tried to get rid of the small explosive tags from her body, she continued to have trouble as she tried to rip off each tag piece by piece. Grunting in annoyance with the troublesome pieces of explosive paper, Leiko quickly jumped into a fast-paced frenzy to take them off. _

_Anger began to surge throughout the Sound kunoichi's body as the tags continue to stay on her and as Sakura watched her opponent from behind a bush, she saw the fiery reflected off from her opponent's blazing red orbs. Watching Leiko twitch her eye in annoyance, the leaf kunoichi took that as her queue to advance. _

_Walking calmly out from her hiding spot, Sakura quickly felt Leiko's gaze carefully watch her every movement and as she saw the Sound nin's actions stop, the pink-haired medic was at ease. Knowing that the upper hand was on her side, Sakura felt like as though she could breathe for a moment and as she did just that before her opponent, she watched the white-haired kunoichi prepare herself to attack. _

_Grabbing another one of her kunai knives, the Sound kunoichi was ready to lash out at her opponent; not caring whether the explosives were activated by her mere chakra use or by several strong movements or gestures, she began to charge at her opponent. _

_Watching the white-haired female run towards her with a strong killer intent, Sakura didn't allow her opponent to take one more step as she rapidly made the correct hand signs and set off explosion after explosion. _

_As the small explosives accumulated and led to a large explosion within the area, the pink-haired medic was quick to leave and take shelter behind a large oak tree that stood several meters away from the blast. Covering her face with her arms, Sakura didn't dare to turn and look back. Despite being far way from the explosion, she still felt a slight impact as a strong breeze crossed through the area. _

_Once the smoke had cleared, the leaf kunoichi was quick to turn around and see the damage; several trees were damaged and many had fallen and as Sakura made her way through all the forest rubble to look for her opponent, she abruptly stopped in midstep. _

_Quickly stepping down from a large tree stump that was now laying on the dirt floor, the leaf medic checked under the large oak tree and saw that her opponent had absorbed all the impact from the explosives. _

_Looking back at the Sound kunoichi, Sakura quickly checked for a pulse and rapidly found none. As she removed her hand from her opponent's neck, the pink-haired kunoichi concluded that her battle was finally over. _

_Slumping her shoulders in relief and letting out a sigh, Sakura quickly wiped some sweat coming from her forehead. As she took the time to let the full impact of the battle hit her, a few moments later she smirked at her triumph and stood tall._

_Looking up at the sky, Sakura was quick to smile at her accomplishment before quickly seeing other signs of fighting occurring around her; once drawing her back to reality, Sakura knew that it wasn't over yet and as she quickly collected the rest of her kunai and senbon, the kunoichi rapidly left her battle grounds and made her way towards her comrades. _

_

* * *

_

_Katara felt the intensity of the fight grow as she continued to defend the Takahashi against any hits headed towards him; she knew that his jutsu took a lot of concentration and as he guided her through the fight, the Uchiha heiress continued to keep up with the fast pace. Her stamina was high enough to handle the speed that her opponent was fighting with and as she watched several kunai and shuriken headed towards them with her crimson orbs, she continued to block the projectiles and cancel them out with her own. _

"_Nice move, Katara." Koji said as he stood back to back from her. _

_Smiling at his compliment, the Uchiha nodded in response and as she looked back at him, Katara saw the small glint in his eye that showed her he fully trusted her with his life in her hands. _

_

* * *

_

"_You've got quite the moves, brat." Hideko spat out as he wiped another drop of blood from his mouth. _

_Wiping some sweat from his brow, Naruto grinned at his opponent's statement and as he stood before the Sound nin he was quick to raise his arm and hold his kunai knife up high. _

_Both shinobi were near their breaking points and after an action-packed battle, both had received several wounds and injuries; Naruto was heavily scratched and as he held some burn marks on his skin, his opponent was sporting a large gash near the side of his body along with several scratches on his body as well. _

_As Hideko applied pressure on his wound, he tried to show no vulnerability before his opponent; although he was breathing heavily from the loss of blood, he could tell that his vision was becoming unclear as he felt himself slip into unconsciousness. _

_Shaking his head in refusal, Hideko tried his best to shake off this feeling and as Naruto heard a growl erupt from the Sound nin's mouth, the blonde was quick to take out a kunai knife as his blue eyes watched his opponent pull out some senbon. _

_Smirking at the blonde, Hideko turned his gaze away from his opponent and as his fierce green eyes caught sight of the heiress, his smirk widened even more. _

_Naruto, once realizing where his opponent's gaze was, quickly narrowed his blue orbs and as he watched the Sound nin quickly pull out several senbon needles, he prepared himself as he got into a defensive stance with a kunai in hand to cancel out the many needles._

_Carefully observing the weapons his opponent was now holding, the blonde shinobi knew that they were poisonous as he saw some drops of the purple poison drip to the dirt ground. Knowing instinctively that he'd have to be careful, Naruto was ready for the projectile to be thrown at him. _

_Deciding to charge at his opponent before he'd get the chance to throw any senbon needles, the leaf nin saw Hideko continuing to smirk and as he watched the man's gaze turn towards the Uchiha heiress, Naruto slowly watched the Sound shinobi throw his senbon. _

_The hyperactive nin felt the senbon glide pass him with ease and as he quickly realized what was going on, Naruto quickly stopped in his tracks. As if watching the needles travel in slow motion, he rapidly gathered enough strength in his wrist and threw his own kunai knife at them, hoping to stop them before they'd hit their target. _

_As the kunai knife neared the three needles, Naruto watched helplessly with his blue orbs as he saw his kunai knife miss its target. Widening his eyes in horror as he watched Katara's attention being drawn towards something else, he desperately tried to come up with a plan. _

_Shaking off the shock from himself, Naruto was quick to cup his hands around his mouth; yelling out into the air, he only hoped that the Uchiha heiress would hear him before it would be too late. "Katara! Watch out!" _

_

* * *

_

_Hearing someone yell out her name, Katara was broken out of her focus as she scanned the area and tried to find the person who would have yelled out. As her navy orbs looked around, she saw from a distance a blonde-haired male facing towards her and as the Uchiha heiress calmly let herself relax to see him safe, she tilted her head in confusion as she watched him wave his hands frantically in the air. _

_Narrowing her eyes to see his face full of worry, Katara's eyes quickly widened as she felt something skim her side; looking down at what had just happened, the Uchiha heiress saw the three senbon needles slightly cut her skin. _

_As Katara slowly processed what had just happened, the Uchiha heiress quickly dropped her kunai knife as her hands came to her side. Trying to stop the bleeding, the female Uchiha breathed deeply in and out as she felt the pain overcome her. Her body slowly slumped to the ground and as Katara painfully kneeled on the ground, through her tearful navy-blue orbs, she saw her own blood littering the dirt ground. _

_Finally letting her body fall, the Uchiha felt overwhelming pain as she continued to clutch onto her side; as she felt her own body spasm in pain, Katara couldn't help but let out a bloodcurdling scream as she felt the full effects of the poison. It felt as though someone was stabbing her repeatedly all over her body and as her screams continued to get louder and louder, the heiress couldn't help but let her tears fall. _

_All the pain and suffering was beginning to get to her, and as the heiress allowed herself to succumb to her inner pain and outer pain, her tears continued to fall. _

_Slowly squinting her eyes because even small movements caused pain to sweep her whole body, Katara saw a mesh of black hair come towards her; one eye closed as she concentrated on not moving too much to see said person, and as Katara managed to slowly roll over onto her side, she was relieved to find Koji kneeling beside her. _

_Quickly rushing to her side, Koji was quick to softly allow the Uchiha lye in his lap as she continued with her screaming; watching his fellow friend in pain, the Takahashi only wished to rid her of it and as he tried to calm her down, he couldn't help but hope things would turn out all right. And for once in his life, Takahashi Koji didn't know what the outcome would be. _

_

* * *

_

_The Kaguya and the male Uchiha were still at it; as both opponents watched each other carefully, they knew that they were both breathing heavily from their current battle. After several attempts to beat the other, both shinobi found that their opponent was just as good. _

_Sasuke was now standing a few feet before his opponent and as his katana was reflecting off the rays of the sunlight, the Uchiha knew he was running out of options to finish off the enemy. Narrowing his Sharingan eyes, the Uchiha was quick to use the sun's rays to his advantage; just as Kimimaro grabbed another bone-like weapon from his spinal column, the Uchiha watched carefully as the Kaguya fully charged at him. _

_Waiting for his chance, Sasuke stood his ground as he watched his opponent's fast-paced movements with his crimson eyes. Once the Kaguya was within his range, the male Uchiha was quick to use the sun's rays; as the reflection of the light from his sword hit the Kaguya's green eyes, slightly blinding him for a moment, the Uchiha was quick to make his advance and slash his opponent in the gut. _

_Watching Kimimaro hold onto his stomach and watch the blood poor out from the wound, the Kaguya slowly took a step back to assess the damage. _

_As Sasuke continued to glare down at his opponent with his crimson orbs, the Uchiha was just about to make another advance as he held his katana up above his opponent's head until he heard several familiar screams. _

_The male Uchiha was quick to stop his barrage of attacks and as he turned his head to see what was happening, Sasuke failed to notice his opponent take this moment to his advantage and leave from the battlefield. _

_Kimimaro knew when he reached his limit and as he took the moment to escape, he felt the Uchiha's Sharingan gaze still on him. _

_As he watched his opponent quickly disappear, both shinobi met eye to eye once more and as the Uchiha glared at the Kaguya with his crimson orbs, Sasuke was quick to put his sword back in its sheath. _

_Looking back at the area once more, the Uchiha quickly inspected every perimeter as he watched the Kaguya's figure become smaller and smaller before it quickly disappeared from his sight. _

_Knowing that his opponent was now gone from the area, the male Uchiha jumped into a sprint as he followed the familiar screams of pain. _

_

* * *

_

_As Sakura was taking a slow and steady pace as she made her way back towards her teammates, she heard a loud scream. Stopping dead in her tracks, the pink-haired medic tried her best to decipher who was making the noise. _

_Hearing the screams continue, the leaf kunoichi quickly recognized the person's voice; widening her eyes in fear, Sakura increased her pace and ran towards the heiress' voice. _

'_Just hold on, Katara. I'll be there.' Thought Sakura as she continued to run as quickly as possible. _

_

* * *

_

_Watching the needles skim his friend's side, Naruto's temper quickly flared up; releasing some of the demon fox's chakra from within himself, the blonde was quick to charge at the Sound nin at full force. _

_Knocking the bulky nin into the tree, the leaf shinobi held onto him by the throat as he looked at him with his deadly reddish orbs. Growling as he still saw that smirk on his opponent's face, Naruto only further tightened his hold. _

_Chuckling at his opponent, Hideko was quick to give another grin and refused to show any fear on his face. _

"_Hn…you shouldn't be worrying about me, brat; your friend over there will die from that poison and then, Orochimaru will get what he wants. I'll be welcomed back as a hero!" the Sound nin bragged. _

_Tightening his hold even more, Naruto closed in onto his opponent's face; with just a few inches in between them, the blonde slammed Hideko's body over and over again into the tree. "You, you bastard! You better be able to repay what you've just done! Don't you ever, don't you ever hurt her again!" _

_Watching the man before him cough up blood, the blonde quickly let his grip loosen up as he continued to listen to his friend's screams. _

_Wiping some blood from his mouth, Hideko quickly broke the silence with "Hehe, you better hurry up and find some help for her before its too late." _

_Not bothering to even say another word to the nin, Naruto left him there as he was resting against the tree bark; quickly rushing towards his friend, the blonde didn't bother to look back as all he could focus on was the well-being of his close friend. _

_Smirking at the outcome of his battle, Hideko slowly got up; as he had trouble keeping himself steady, he managed to take a breath; heaving and taking in air, the Sound nin couldn't help but smirk as he realized how pleased Orochimaru would be with him. _

_Opening his right palm and looking at the silver piece of jewelry held before him, he knew that this would be enough proof to show his master that he had done the job. _

_Once gathering up enough strength, the Sound nin slowly limped away from the area, laughing as he made his way towards the kingdom. _

_

* * *

_

_As she became blinded by her salty tears, Katara felt someone come to her side; looking to the right, she saw Koji cradle her and try to help her deal with the pain, but it didn't help at all. _

_Another huge spasm of pain passed through her body and as more screams were let out from her lips, the Uchiha closed her eyes in pain, hoping that it would get better soon once Sakura would help heal her. _

_As she heard Koji whisper to her that the pink-haired medic was here and that she would be fine, she felt the leaf kunoichi kneel before her and start working on her. Feeling some soothing chakra enter into her system, the Uchiha heiress was able to slightly calm down from her spasms. _

_

* * *

_

"_How does she look, Sakura?" Koji questioned as he watched the female Uchiha's face become more pale with each second. _

_Sakura's emerald eyes were focused on the patient and friend before her and as she tried to stop whatever pain was occurring in the Uchiha's body, she quickly realized the problem. The poison that had entered her system was too strong and was one she had never come across before. Trying to hide her shock from her face before the Takahashi would see, Sakura tried to think of a plan inside her head as she continued to check for anything else wrong with the heiress. _

_Looking up at the Takahashi, the medic was just about to answer his question until she felt her two other teammates enter the area. _

"_What's wrong with her, Sakura?" demanded the male Uchiha as he knelt down beside the heiress and put the back of his hand to her forehead. _

_Quickly taking it away, Sasuke looked back at her and realized how fast she was paling and shaking. "She has a fever; is that all?" _

"_She's going to be all right, isn't she, Sakura-chan?" asked Naruto as he looked at the medic with his blue orbs and knelt before the Uchiha heiress. Taking one of her ivory hands into his, the blonde tried to trace soothing circles on her hand as he tried to soothe her from the pain. _

_As Sakura felt all three boys' gazes focusing on her, the medic quickly shook her head and cleared her voice. "Sh-she's been poisoned and I'm afraid I've never seen this kind of poison; it seems to have been homemade and it causes several spasms of pain that become worse and worse as time passes. It's a poison that slowly kills its victims." _

"_So are you going to be able to do anything for her?" questioned the blonde as he turned towards her again. _

_Letting out a sigh, Sakura slowly refused to show disappointment in her eyes, but she knew when she reached her limit in medical knowledge. "Naruto, I-I don't know if I can do anything." She had said as she looked at her hands and waited for her comrades' responses. _

_Slowly getting up from his spot, everyone's gaze followed the blonde's small movements; as Naruto got up onto his feet, he was quick to release his rage. "This is just great! You can't do anything Sakura? If you don't try anything, she's going to die! Do you want her to die out here?" _

_Twitching her eye in annoyance, the pink-haired kunoichi replied back with, "Of course I want her to be alive, baka! But it's beyond my own knowledge! As far as I know there's nothing I can do!" _

"_Nothin-nothing you can do? You're the only one with the power to help her! We can't do anything but stand in the background; do you know how that feels to just watch one of your closest friend get hurt on your watch?" the hyperactive nin asked as began to calm down. _

_Softening her gaze, Sakura remained silent as she began to rethink his words; rather than look him directly in the eye, Sakura wanted to avoid from looking at his hurt-filled eyes and replied back with, "I'm sorry, but I don't know what more I can do." _

_Silence filled the air as all four leaf shinobi surrounded the heiresses body. As Katara was still laying in Koji's lap, she continued to have more powerful spasms of pain that caused her to knock herself out from his grasp and fall to the ground. _

_

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_

_As Katara felt her back collide to the dirt ground, she slowly opened her navy orbs; looking up and seeing a familiar figure, the Uchiha heiress was quick to reach out towards said person as she gave him a soft smile. _

_Slightly giggling, the heiress held a dream-like expression on her face; coughing up some blood, the Uchiha tried to stop herself as she attempted to smile again. _

"_It-itachi, I-I love you." She had said as her hand fell limp to her side. _

_

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_

_As all four shinobi watched Katara slowly reach out towards Sasuke, everyone's eyes widened in shock as they realized she was becoming delirious; as Sakura was about to stop her from her actions, she had quickly become frozen as she heard the next few words slip from Katara's lips. _

"_It-itachi, I-I love you."_

_Everyone was in complete shock and as Sasuke's onyx eyes widened in surprise, those three simple words reminded him of his promise: __**"Itachi, you have my word. I'll protect her with my life. I know how much she means to you and you forget, I care about her as well as everyone else too."**_

_As he tightened his grip on his knuckles, the male Uchiha's hands almost became white as snow as he heard his own words echo through his head._

"_Sasuke, are you all right?" questioned the pink-haired medic as everyone now was turning their attention towards him._

"_I promised him that she'd be fine…" Sasuke calmly began to say as his tone quickly got louder and more aggressive, "What's he going to say once he realizes she's going to be gone, Sakura?" _

_The medic was speechless along with everyone else and as she couldn't find enough words to form a coherent sentence, Sakura remained silent as she was also shocked at the Uchiha's outburst. _

"_You have to be able to do something, Sakura. It's not something you can decide on, you have to do it. She's the last hope that anyone in this world has, she can't die yet! Itachi trusted me to protect her with my life! He's never cared about someone this much in his life and to think that this one person is going to be gone will end his own world." _

_Afraid to meet his gaze, Sakura nodded her head and turned her attention back to the heiress; seeing that her fever was worsening and the spasms were becoming more unbearable, the medic quickly said aloud, "As of now, I can only delay the process; I don't have a cure for it yet, but if I'm able to buy us enough time, I might just have enough time to figure it out." _

"_This means a lot to me, Sakura. Arigatou." The male Uchiha said as he softened his gaze at his female teammate. _

_

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_

"_Orochimaru-sama, Hideko has something he wants to tell you; should I let him in?" questioned Kabuto as he knelt before his superior. _

_Turning his golden-eyed gaze towards the gray-haired medic, Orochimaru slowly sat up in his seat and replied back with, "Of course….let him in Kabuto. I'm interested in seeing what he has to say." _

_As the double wooden doors slowly opened to reveal a limping Sound, both Orochimaru and his right-hand man watched Hideko make his way into the center of the room. _

_Watching him slowly kneel down before his superior, the brown-haired nin was quick to give Orochimaru a smirk as he held out the small trinket in his hand. _

_Getting up from his seat to take at look at the silver necklace, the Sound leader carefully took a closer look at the piece of jewelry as he held it up before him. _

"_What is this, Hideko?" asked the snake-user as he returned the trinket back and waited for an answer. _

"_It's a medal of my accomplishment…my men and I were able to get rid of your nuisance; she's dead, Orochimaru-sama." Hideko said as he grinned. _

_Smirking at the good news, Orochimaru quickly got back onto his own seat and returned his attention back to the Sound nin; "Very well then, Hideko; good job, now…nothing will stand in my way." _

_

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_

"_Here you go, Itachi; here's a nice, warm cell for ya!" said a sound nin as he roughly pushed the Uchiha into the cell; as Itachi laid on the ground on his side, the sound nin was quick to deliver a kick to his gut without any feeling of remorse._

_As the Uchiha's back hit the stone wall, he quickly grunted in pain and as he clutched onto his stomach, he was quick to look up at his enemy with his crimson orbs. _

_The Sound nin standing before him only smirked and as he slowly approached the Uchiha, he lowered himself to become eye level with him; reaching down into his pocket, the Sound nin rapidly pulled out a familiar looking necklace. As Itachi's crimson eyes widened in shock at the silver piece of jewelry, he felt the smirk of his capturer widen. Watching the necklace slowly drop onto the ground, the Uchiha quickly grabbed it and looked at it; as the glint in his eyes turned into despair, Itachi slowly brought the item towards his own orbs. As he watched the piece of jewelry dangle before him, his eyes quickly turned towards the Sound nin; looking at him with a glare that could surely kill, the raven-haired vampire got ready to pounce onto his opponent and release his anger. _

_Itachi was initially blinded by rage and as he let his own emotions take over, he quickly jumped at the nin and as he was just about to strangle the shinobi in front of him, he felt himself being held back. As he quickly turned around and saw chains around his wrists, he saw that his attempt to hurt the Sound nin would be futile. _

_Looking up from where he was kneeling, the male Uchiha clutched onto the silver necklace and as he waited for his capturer to explain what had happened, he wasn't prepared to hear what he had just heard. _

"_Orochimaru's been kind enough to let you keep a trinket from the recently dead princess; she won't be causing anymore trouble for him." The Sound nin said as he smirked and quickly shut and locked the door before the Uchiha could ask anymore questions. _

_Being left inside his own dark cell, Itachi let his body lean against the cold, hard-stoned walls as he looked at the piece of jewelry. He clearly remembered the day he gave her this and as he tried to imagine her here with him in his own embrace, he carefully traced the small letters on the back of the necklace. _

'I will always be there; when you cry, I will be there to wipe away the tears.'

_Lowering his gaze as he tightly clutched onto the necklace, Itachi couldn't help but try to remember all the fond memories he had with her from his childhood up until now. It was unfair for him to go through so much pain and suffering to find the one person he wanted to spend the rest of his life with, and knowing that she was now gone, he felt his own eyes water as he saw a tear fall from his orbs. _

_Itachi couldn't remember the last time he had cried; as far as he was concerned, he had shed his last tear when Orochimaru and his men had invaded the kingdom, and as far as he concerned, he didn't know he was possible of crying, until now. _

_Letting all the painful emotions overcome him, the male Uchiha was slowing breaking down. Remembering her own genuine smile and laugh, Itachi couldn't help but let more tears fall and hit the hard-stoned ground of his cell and he knew that no one else in the world would be able to make him feel the way she could. _

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**Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter! Please review and sorry again for the late update! **

**Review please! **

**-Katara**


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